Cfd modelling of h-darrieus vertical axis wind turbine

 
1.5 RESEARCH PROBLEM STATEMENT 
Fossil fuel will run out within 50 years. Main energy sources will be solar, water and wind in future. 
Wind energy has a huge potential specially for remote locations and private use. However, 
horizontal axis wind turbines are very heavy because of its yaw mechanism. 
VAWT does not require complex yaw mechanism and are omnidirectional. However, further 
research on mass production of VAWT and mechanism to increase its efficiency are required to 
provide electricity for remote locations. 
1.6 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 
This work mainly concentrates on the simulation of a mini scale wind turbine for remote locations 
or private use. Simple endeavor of simulation that leads to further development of 2D and 3D 
simulations. The purpose of this study is rotor design optimization by studying the effects of various 
parameters like rotor radius, chord length etc. 
1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 
In this project, the 2D simulation of a H-Darrieus VAWT was done using Computational Fluid 
Dynamics (CFD) simulation software Fluent. Sliding Mesh model was used which takes into 
account the vortices generated by the blades passing upwind on the blades downstream unlike over-
simplified MRF model. This study can be used for design optimization for performance 
improvement of wind turbine. However, only simulation with validation is done with the intention 
of doing further studies on the performance evaluation of wind turbine. 2D simulations has its 
limitations as it doesn’t consider 3D effects like tip vortex that leads to overestimation of generated 
power. So, the best results are expected to obtain by developing a 3D model. For running this type 
of transient simulations, a device with better capacity would be required.
 
 
 

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