Heliyon (Oct 2020)
Simulation of vorticity wind turbines
Abstract
There are a wide variety of devices behaving essentially as flexible and elastic systems while interacting dynamically with fluids, usually water or air, under normal operating conditions. Interactions of this kind involve a double complexity of the dynamics, as the systems go through large deformation due to the flow actions, and simultaneously, the flow dynamics is strongly influenced by the shape adopted by the systems. The present research adapts mathematical methods, still new to the field, to represent ways of dealing with flows of fluid in bidirectional interactions with those new technologies, and particularly applies them to the exploration of vorticity wind turbines (VWT), a new kind of vertical blade-less turbine that gathers energy from the vortex induced vibrations (VIV) of a relatively short and scalable mast. This research presents a framework for such modeling by coupling the discrete element method (DEM) with the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM), for the representation of VWT; and with the finite volume method (FVM), for solving the Navier-Stokes equations. Simulations show that the VWT achieves the lock-in effect for wind velocities between 9 and 15 m/s, with efficiency values between 20 and 30%. The preliminary results together with logistic and cost-related reasons, make these devices very promising, especially when considering the difficulties of implementing new approaches in developing countries.
