HAWT Description

The present study investigates the airflow passing over a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) by ANSYS Fluent software. The purpose of the problem is to study the distribution of velocity and pressure on the surface of the blades and their body.

The present 3-D model was designed by SOLIDWORKS software and imported to Design Modeler software. The present turbine has three blades, a rotary axis, and a domain around the blades. The meshing of the model has been done using ANSYS Meshing software.

The mesh type used for this geometry is structured, and the element number is 4270222.

Methodology

The present simulation aims to investigate the effect of wind flow on the turbine blades. It calculates the Drag and Lift forces applied to the blade surfaces of the HAWT. In this problem, the turbine blades rotate at a rotational speed of 72 rad.s-1 on the horizontal axis. The air in the area surrounding the blades is stationary.

Using the MRF method, the blades can be assumed to be constant. The wind flow around the blades is rotated to the same rotational velocity of 72 rad.s-1 around the y-axis.

Since the present simulation is related to the external flow, the K-Omega SST model has been used. This model of k-omega operates as a hybrid function. This results in a gradual transfer of flow from the k-omega model for near-wall regions to the k-epsilon model in areas beyond the boundary layer.

Moreover, the air enters the domain with a velocity of 15m/s. It leaves it through a pressure-outlet boundary to atmospheric pressure.

HAWT Conclusion

At the end of the solution process, contours related to the velocity, streamlines, and velocity vectors are obtained. As seen in velocity contour, the radial airflow distribution is obvious due to the turbine blades' rotating motion. Also, by viewing the velocity vectors near the blade's surface, the interaction between airflow and the turbine blade can be seen in detail.