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ProcediaProcedia Engineering 31 000000 86 Engineering 00 (2011) (2012) 80

Procedia Engineering
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

International Conference on Advances in Computational Modeling and Simulation

Numerical simulation of aerodynamic performance for two dimensional wind turbine airfoils
Ji Yaoa*, Weibin Yuanb, jianliang Wanga, Jianbin Xiec , Haipeng Zhoub , Mingjun Pengd, Yong Sund
a

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650024; b Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang Institute of Technology, Hangzhou 310014; c Faculty of Urban construction and management, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091; d Faculty of Materials Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093)

Abstract The aerodynamic performance of wind turbine airfoils was an important foundation for the aerodynamic design and the performance analysis of the wind turbine. The method of numerical simulation was used in this paper, and the aerodynamic performance of NACA0018 wind turbine airfoil was analyzed, then the lift and drag coefficient of the airfoil under different turbulence models were discussed and compared with the experimental data. The applicability of the turbulence models for the different airfoils numerical simulation was investigated, and the flow field structure was analyzed. The calculation results provided a reference for the research and development of wind turbine airfoils.

2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Kunming University of Science and Technology
Keywordswind turbine, airfoil, aerodynamic performance, numerical simulation;

1. Preface As the rapid development of human society and economy, environmental pollution and energy supply had become more and more prominent, so the development and utilization for the renewable energy, especially for the wind energy has become the world's important issue. The leaf blade, as one of the core components of wind turbine, good aerodynamic performance of the airfoil was the key factors which

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-13529102730; E-mail address: 105434620@qq.com

1877-7058 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.01.994

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affected the power coefficient of the wind turbine, so an important part of leaf blades aerodynamic design was rational choice for the airfoils. Compared with the developed countries like United States, Sweden, Denmark in the field of wind energy technology, in China, the geometry and aerodynamic performance parameters for dedicated wind turbine airfoils lacked currently. The choice of airfoils mainly included NACA series airfoils, NREL S series airfoils, SERI series airfoils, RISF-A series airfoils, FFAW series airfoils [1] and DU series airfoils. At present, the numerical simulation analysis for the performance of wind turbine airfoils [2] mainly concentrated in the influence of mesh density [3], turbulence model [4-5], leading edge roughness [5], airfoil camber [6] and Reynolds number [7] for the aerodynamic performance. Given the reality that the aerodynamic performance analysis of domestic wind turbine machine mainly based on the numerical simulation, the deep study on the simulation for common airfoils would provide reliable reference for the aerodynamic design of wind turbine machine. With the help of the CFD software FLUENT, the method of steady numerical analysis was used in this paper, NACA0018 airfoil which developed by U.S. National Aviation Advisory Board was analyzed numerically, and the lift and drag coefficient of the airfoil under different turbulence models were discussed and compared with the experimental data. The turbulence model suitable for the airfoils numerical simulation was investigated, and then the flow field structure was analyzed. 2. Object for study NACA0018 airfoil which developed by U.S. National Aviation Advisory Board was selected in this paper as the object for the numerical analysis. The geometry of NACA0018 which chord length of 1m was shown in Fig1. This airfoil was symmetrical, had maximum thickness of 18%(compared with the chord length).

Fig1 Geometry of NACA0018 airfoil

In calculation, Reynolds number was taken as 5105, the relative Mach number was 0.023. The attack angle of flow was changed by the change of models inclination angle. The attack angle in calculation changed from -8 to 13, added up to 22 states of attack angle. 3. Method of numerical calculation 3.1. Creation of mesh model Computational domain was composed of front half of semicircle and the back half of rectangle, which the radius of semicircle was 16m and the side length of rectangle was 32m and 30m relatively, airfoil was located near the center of semicircle. Taking into account the boundary layers affect on the aerodynamic performance of airfoils, C-H type structured grid was applied in the airfoil domain. Also considering the requirements of turbulence model for the grid, the boundary layer mesh was densed, so the results met the stability requirements. The total number of model grid was 139140, which 400 points distributed on the airfoils surface totally. Airfoil and nearby wall grid were shown in Fig2. It could be seen from the figure

was air density, =1.225kg/m; was fluid dynamic viscosity coefficient, =1.7894 105 kg/(ms); l was airfoils chord length, and u was the relative speed between airfoil and flow.

Numerical simulation parameters of airfoil determined by the Reynolds number: Re= ul/ where

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that the distribution of the grid was much more dense in airfoils front edge, back edge and airfoils surface. The mesh of the computational domain was shown in Fig3.

Fig2 part grid of NACA0018 airfoil

Fig3 mesh of the computational domain

3.2. Boundary conditions Boundary conditions [8] were set as follows: 1) inlet boundary was set as velocity-inlet, the inlet velocity and flow direction were given; 2) outlet boundary was set as pressure-outlet; 3) airfoil surface was set as adiabatic no-slip wall. 3.3. Turbulence model With the help with the commercial CFD software Fluent, two dimensional airfoils aerodynamic performance was simulated numerically. The control equations were Navier-Stokes equations, and four turbulence models were applied: Standard k model of two equations, RNG k model, Transition SST model of four equations and Reynolds stress model of five equations. SIMPLEC algorithm was used to solve the coupling problem between velocity components and pressure in momentum equations. Momentum, turbulence kinetic energy and dissipation ratio were taken as second-order upwind scheme in calculation. 4. Steady calculation 4.1. Aerodynamic performance of airfoil The airfoils with different shapes and sizes had different lift and drag force, so non-dimensional lift coefficient and drag coefficient were used usually to explore the pros and cons of airfoils. The calculation equations of airfoils lift and drag coefficient were shown as follows: L (1) Cl 0.5V2l

Cd
Where
Cl

D 0.5V2l

(2)

the airfoils was lift coefficient,

Cd

was the airfoils drag coefficient,

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1.5 experimental data k- model RNG k- model sst4 model reynolds model
0.2 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 -8 experimental data k- model RNG k- model sst4 model reynolds model

83

lift coefficient

0.5 0 -0.5 -1 -8

-3

2 attack angle

12

drag coefficient

-3

2 attack angle

12

(a) Lift coefficient

(b) Drag coefficient

Fig 4 variation of the lift coefficient and drag coefficient with the change of the attack angle

L was the lift force suffered by airfoil, D was the drag force suffered by airfoil, was air density, Vr was the relative velocity when air flowed through the airfoil and l was the airfoils chord length. The experimental data of NACA0018 airfoils lift drag coefficient and calculation results of different turbulence models were shown in Figure 4. It could be seen from the calculation results and experimental data comparison figure, the lift and drag coefficient curve of four turbulence models had consistent movements and shapes with the experimental curve. And for the lift coefficient curve, the calculation results of five equations Reynolds stress model was closest with the experimental data. While the drag coefficient curve of four turbulence models varied greatly with the experimental data, especially the two equations Standard k model, and five equations Reynolds stress model had smallest difference between the experimental data. Drag coefficients larger deviation may be caused by the drag coefficients sensitivity to the surface roughness and other factors.
4.2. Distribution of pressure coefficient The distribution of pressure coefficient of NACA0018 airfoil under different attack angle when five equations Reynolds stress model was applied was shown in Fig5. It could be seen from this figure that the airfoil leading edge had a larger curvature, the flow on the airfoil surface would have a large acceleration, then the static pressure would lower on the airfoils surface. There was a anti-curvature shrinking section on the airfoil rear edge pressure side, which could lower the velocity and increase the pressure, so the pressure coefficient of rear edge pressure side had a obvious inclination. The figure showed that the distribution of pressure on the airfoils surface varied largely under different attack angle. When the attack angle was less than zero, the pressure coefficient of airfoils upper surface was positive and lower surface was negative, indicated that at this time lift force of airfoil pointed below. When the attack angle was zero, the pressure coefficient of airfoils upper and lower surface was nearly equal, for the symmetry of NACA0018 airfoil. And when the attack angle was larger than zero, the pressure coefficient of airfoils upper surface was negative and lower surface was positive, indicated that at this time lift force of airfoil pointed up. It could be seen from Figure 5 that the larger attack angle, the greater difference of pressure coefficient between upper and lower surface. For NACA0018 airfoil, the difference of pressure coefficient on the airfoils front edge was much larger, while on the rear edge was much lower, indicated that the lift force of airfoil mainly come from front edge.

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(a) -80 down

b-40 down

c00

d60 up

e80 up

f130 up

Fig 5 distribution of pressure coefficient for different attack angle

4.3. Structure of flow field Fig6 showed the flow line of NACA0018 airfoil under different attack angle calculated by five equations Reynolds stress model.

a-80 down

b-40 down

c00

d60 up

e80 up

f130 up

Fig 6 flow line of NACA0018 airfoil under different attack angle

It could be seen from the figure that the flow separation didnt occurred around the airfoils of different attack angle when Reynolds number was taken as 5105, for at this time Reynolds number was relatively

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small. (a) and (f) of Figure 6 showed that airfoil had a large velocity gradient around the front surface, indicated that curvature of airfoils front edge accelerated the flow. The flow velocity gradient of lower airfoil was larger than upper when attack angle was down, while the flow velocity gradient of upper airfoil was larger than lower when attack angle was up. And (e) of Figure 6 showed that when attack angle was zero, the flow separated in the front edge of airfoil, then upper and lower flow combined immediately in the rear airfoil. When attack angle was large, the flow separated in the front edge of airfoil, then combined in a certain distance of the rear airfoil. 5. Conclusion With the help of CFD software Fluent, the aerodynamic performance of the dedicated wind turbine airfoils NACA0018 was simulated numerically when Reynolds number was 5105and the attack angle in calculation changed from -8 to 13. The conclusion was shown as follows: 1) When the attack angle changed from -8 to 13, steady numerical methods could be applied to predict the aerodynamic performance of airfoil, the lift and drag coefficient curve of four turbulence models had consistent movements and shapes with the experimental curve. The lift coefficient curves of four turbulence models were much closer with the experimental data, while drag coefficient curves differed largely with the experimental data. This may be caused by the roughness of front edge or other factors. Five equations Reynolds stress model had best result in four turbulence models. 2) The distribution of airfoils surface pressure changed largely under different attack angle. In the conversion process of attack angle changed from less than zero to greater than zero, the pressure coefficient positive and negative symbols of airfoils upper and lower surface would be changed. And when the attack angle was zero, the pressure coefficients of airfoils upper and lower surface were equal. The larger attack angle, the greater difference of pressure coefficient between upper and lower surface. The difference of pressure coefficient on the airfoils front edge was much larger, while on the rear edge was much lower, indicated that the lift force of airfoil mainly come from front edge. 3) The flow separation didnt occurred around the airfoils of different attack angle, at this time Reynolds number was relatively small. The airfoil had a large velocity gradient around the front surface when attack angle was relatively large. The upper and lower velocity gradient of airfoils front edge differed with attack angle pointing down or up. When attack angle was zero, the flow separated in the front edge of airfoil, then upper and lower flow combined immediately in the rear airfoil. When attack angle was large, the flow separated in the front edge of airfoil, then combined in a certain distance of the rear airfoil. Acknowledgement This work was financially supported by major social development project in science and technology projects of Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (2009C13012). Reference:
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