Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine

Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine CFD Simulation (Moving Mesh), ANSYS Fluent

Description

This project simulates an Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine using ANSYS Fluent. The Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine is one of several innovative horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) designs explored to increase wind energy adoption in urban environments — though the success and widespread adoption of such designs can vary depending on advancements in engineering, cost-effectiveness, and broader market conditions.

The model consists of two zones: a rotating zone, a small cylinder enclosing the spiral blade, and a stationary zone, represented as a surrounding duct enclosure. The geometry was designed in SolidWorks and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid totaling 3,207,809 cells.

Methodology

Blade rotation was captured using Mesh Motion, well suited to this unsteady problem, with the rotating zone spinning about the z-axis at an angular velocity of 300 rpm. Turbulence was resolved using the SST k-omega model.

Conclusion

The resulting contours and pathlines reveal how the airflow behaves around the spiral blade. Velocity contours and streamlines clearly illustrate the aerodynamic character of this spiral blade design, with higher velocities concentrated in the inner region of the rotor due to local flow acceleration around the blade's blunt-body corners. Pressure distribution also varies notably along the blade's length, with significant differences observed between the root and tip regions.

Understanding these aerodynamic characteristics — the velocity acceleration pattern and the root-to-tip pressure variation — is essential for optimizing the performance of this spiral-bladed turbine design as it develops toward practical urban wind energy applications.