Experimental and computational investigation of energy ball wind turbine aerodynamic performance

Abstract

Small-scale wind turbines with innovative design are introduced for small applications, providing clean renewable energy to rural homes, street lighting, and hybrid systems. Energy ball wind turbine, known as Venturi wind turbine, has untraditional blades’ shape and special aerodynamic behavior that creates a venturi effect on the air stream passing through its aspherical shape. This article represents an integration of computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel experimentation to study the aerodynamic performance of a manufactured model of energy ball wind turbine. Physical models with different twist angles were fabricated and tested in a small wind test section. In these experiments, dynamic torque, angular velocity, and coefficient of performance values were measured at different speeds. The experimental power coefficient results were discussed showing the best-tested twist angle. Fluid flow simulation has been developed in ANSYS FLUENT software. The findings of these numerical simulations have provided pressure contour, velocity contour, and torque values which help to study the solidity effect on turbine’s power coefficient. Nevertheless, the velocity contours provided from the computational analysis ensure the Venturi effect of the energy ball wind turbine design.