Gorlov Vertical Axis Wind Turbine CFD Simulation, ANSYS Fluent

Description

In this project, a Gorlov vertical axis wind turbine is simulated using ANSYS Fluent software. The initial geometry of the turbine is taken from Grabcad website and then re-designed in ANSYS Spaceclaim software considering CFD preliminaries. There is a cubic computational domain with the turbine in the middle, close to the inlet boundary. Then, the model is meshed in ANSYS Meshing software with greater accuracy for the blades. In total, X tetrahedron cells were generated.

Methodology

Indeed, the angle of attack in the case of vertical axis wind turbines changes during their rotation; thus, the angular motion should be simulated using the sliding mesh (mesh motion) model. The wind attacks with 10 m/s velocity from the inlet boundary while the turbine rotates with 12 rad/s. The side walls are set as symmetric walls, so they are like an open area.

Results

After the simulation, the velocity, pressure and streamlines are displayed. As can be seen, the collision of the incoming airflow with turbine blades moves the rotor. This results in the generation of torque that can be seen the plot. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the angle of attack continuously changes, which is why the torque generation plot is like a sinusoidal trend. In some angles of attack, the torque generation reaches its highest value and drops in some regions.