Preliminary CFD simulations for the torque wind turbine

Pizzoferrato, A.; Blocken, B.; Kalkman, I.M.

Published in:
Proceedings of the WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’, 30-31 March
2015, Coimbra, Portugal

Published: 01/01/2015

Document Version
Publisher’s PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers)

Please check the document version of this publication:

• A submitted manuscript is the author’s version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences
between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the
author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher’s website.
• The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review.
• The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Link to publication

Citation for published version (APA):

Pizzoferrato, A., Blocken, B. J. E., & Kalkman, I. M. (2015). Preliminary CFD simulations for the torque wind
turbine. In Proceedings of the WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’, 30-
31 March 2015, Coimbra, Portugal. (pp. 87-96). European Cooperation in Science and Technology.

General rights
Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners
and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.

• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.
• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain
• You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?
Take down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately
and investigate your claim.

Download date: 05. Dec. 2016

 WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’, Coimbra, 30‐31 March 2015 

PRELIMINARY CFD SIMULATIONS FOR THE TORQUE WIND

TURBINE

A. Pizzoferratoa, I.M. Kalkmana, B. Blockena,b

a
Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of the Built Environment, the Netherlands
b
KU Leuven, Department of Civil Engineering, Belgium

Abstract: A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study has been conducted to analyze the
efficiency of the newly designed drag-driven Torque Wind Turbine (TWT). Specific objectives
of this study are the analysis of the flow field around one blade of the turbine fixed in a static
position, and the generation of the power and torque coefficient curves for a single rotating
blade. The commercial software Ansys Fluent was used to perform the simulations adopting
the SST k-ω turbulence model. A single blade of the turbine offers a maximum power coeffi-
cient around 0.065 at a tip speed ratio ranging from 0.45 to 0.55 depending on the wind speed.

1. Introduction
As part of the current interest in renewable energy sources, driven by environmental awareness
and the wish to meet the European Union 20-20-20 targets, many research activities are ad-
dressing the development of innovative solutions for wind energy harvesting. The Torque Wind
Turbine (TWT) has been designed in this context of innovation.
Wind turbines can be classified into two essential categories, based on the orientation of the
rotation axis: Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines and Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines [1]. A further
classification distinguishes wind turbines that operate by means of drag force from those driven
by lift force [1].
The TWT is a Vertical-Axis drag-driven Wind Turbine. Compared to other drag-driven de-
signs, a reduction of air resistance is achieved for blades moving upwind. This is accomplished
by folding the blade to create a more aerodynamic body, reducing the drag and increasing the
overall performance of the turbine. Fig. 1 shows the folded and unfolded configurations of the
blade and Fig. 2 highlights their deployment as a function of the angular position of the blade.
This innovative design is analyzed in this document by means of preliminary CFD simulations.
The study was initiated by evaluating the minimum mesh resolution required to perform
accurate simulations and to assess the feasibility of analyzing only half the geometry, taking
advantage of the symmetry of the blade. Then, CFD simulations were performed for a single
blade both in static and rotating conditions. Specifically, by fixing the blade at several angular
positions, it is possible to have a rough idea of self-start capabilities. At the same time, simula-
tions of the rotating blade offered the possibility to generate power and torque coefficient
curves.

- 87 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

Fig. 1: Drawing of the blade of the TWT. The figure shows both the folded and the unfolded
configurations

2. Numerical setup
The CFD simulations reported in this document were performed using Ansys Fluent 15.0 fol-
lowing best-practice guidelines [2]. Steady-state and unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-
Stokes (RANS) calculations were employed to analyze the static and rotating blades, respec-
tively. The k-ω SST model was adopted for turbulence modelling in combination with low-
Reynolds number modelling [3]. In previous studies this model was found to perform very well
for the simulation of drag-driven turbines [4-6].
An incompressible solver was used given that the velocity typical of this study allows the
neglection of compressibility effects. The partial differential equations were discretized using
second order discretization schemes along with the SIMPLE algorithm to couple pressure and
velocity. Calculations were run until all scaled residuals had dropped below 10-6. In addition,
the drag coefficient was required to be constant to within 0.01%.
In this study all calculations were performed for the blade in the unfolded configuration.
Consequently, the results offered in this document are related only to the angular positions in
which the blade is effectively unfolded (i.e. between 30° and 150°).
The following definitions are used in this study (notations at the end of this document):
Cp = M ω / Pref (1)
Pref = 0.5 ρ Vw3 S (2)
λ = ω R / Vw (3)
Cm = 0.5 ρ Vw2 S L (4)

- 88 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

3. Preliminary study
The preliminary investigation consisted of two steps: a grid convergence analysis and a feasi-
bility study on the use of a symmetry boundary condition. These steps are explained in the
following sections.

3.1 The physical setup

In order to carry out the preliminary investigation, CFD simulations of the blade, fixed at an
angular position of 90° on the rotor disk (see Fig. 2), were performed. The drag coefficient has
been monitored as the main indicator of mesh convergence, comparing the values obtained with
different grids. The wind speed was set to 10 m/s.

Fig. 2: Rotor disk for the TWT (top view). From 30° to 150° the blade is unfolded

3.2 Grids and boundary conditions

In this preliminary investigation four different grids have been employed. An example is shown
in Fig. 3. The meshes were generated using Gambit 2.4.6. The cell stretching ratio was limited
to a maximum of 1.3. The boundaries of the domain must be located far enough from the blade
in order not affect the CFD results [4-8].
Defining L as the blade length, for this analysis, a middle way was adopted: the inlet face is
taken at 8L from the blade, the outlet at 15L and the top of the domain at 4L. In Fig. 3 a detail
of the mesh on the blade is shown as well as the boundary conditions adopted.

- 89 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

Fig. 3: Mesh used for the grid convergence analysis

3.3 Grid convergence analysis

The grid convergence study is useful to evaluate the minimum mesh resolution needed to obtain
accurate results. This analysis consists in testing several mesh resolutions and in monitoring the
changes of a physical property as a function of the mesh refinement grade. For the TWT, only
half the blade was analysed, taking advantage of the symmetry of the geometry (feasible as
shown in the next section). Table 1 shows the drag coefficient acting on the blade, calculated
on 4 different meshes.

Table 1: Results from the grid convergence analysis. CD is the drag coefficient
Mesh Number of cells First cell height [m] CD
Coarsest 680,000 0.05 1.41
Coarse 1,050,000 0.01 1.32
Medium 2,500,000 0.001 1.28
Fine 9,500,000 0.0005 1.30

For “Coarse”, “Medium” and “Fine Mesh” the mutual differences between the computed
drag coefficients are within a range of the 3.1%. Therefore, the “Coarse” refinement level
seems to be acceptable and was used for all successive simulations.

3.4 Feasibility study on the use of a symmetry condition

The TWT blade has a horizontal symmetry plane as shown in Fig. 3. To reduce the computa-
tional efforts, it might be feasible to simulate half the geometry. However, this assumption also
requires the symmetry of the flow field, which can be verified with CFD simulations. Therefore,
CFD analyses were performed to evaluate the drag coefficient for half and full geometries. The
results of this analysis are displayed in Table 2, showing that there is no significant difference
in simulating half the blade or the whole one.

- 90 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

Table 2: Results of feasibility study on the use of a symmetry condition

Simulation Mesh Number of cells CD
Steady, half geometry Coarse 1,050,000 1.32
Unsteady, full geometry Coarse 2,100,000 1.31

3.5 Conclusion of the preliminary study

1. Adopting a symmetry condition is allowed;

2. A mesh counting about 1 million cells is able to produce accurate results.
Thus, for all the successive simulations, the symmetry condition is employed with a mesh
that counts roughly 1 million cells.

4. Results
Two studies have been performed: an analysis of the drag coefficient for the blade in a fixed
position and a study of the rotating blade for the generation of torque and power curves.

4.1 CFD analysis of the static blade

Several CFD simulations have been performed to analyze the drag coefficient of the blade fixed
at several angular positions.

4.1.1 Physical setup

The following angular positions were analyzed: 50°, 60°, 90°, 120° and 130° (Fig. 4). Two
different wind speeds were considered: 5 and 10 m/s.

Fig. 4: Rotor disk for the TWT. The red lines identify the angular positions analyzed.

- 91 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

4.1.2 Results

Table 3 shows the drag coefficient of the blade in a static condition, at several angular positions.

Table 3: Drag coefficient for the blade in a static position

Angular
CD, wind speed 5 m/s CD, wind speed 10 m/s
position
50° 1.30 1.31
60° 1.12 1.12
90° 1.32 1.31
120° 1.13 1.12
130° 1.31 1.32

Fig. 5: Drag coefficient expressed as function of the angular position for two different wind speeds: 5
m/s and 10 m/s. ϕ defines the angular position on the rotor disk (see Figure 4)

The drag coefficient does not depend significantly on the wind speed. The values for 45°
and 135° and those for 60° and 120° are quite similar.

4.2 CFD simulations of the rotating blade

Several power and torque curves were generated by performing unsteady CFD simulations of
the rotating blade using the moving mesh technique.

4.2.1 Physical setup

Several wind speeds were analyzed, ranging from 2 m/s to 10 m/s. The power coefficient has
been expressed as a function of the tip speed ratio.

4.2.2 Power coefficient curves

Several power coefficient curves were generated by imposing different wind speeds. These
curves are shown in Fig.6. They express the power coefficient as a function of the tip speed
ratio.

- 92 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

Fig. 6: Power coefficient as a function of tip speed ratio for one blade of the TWT

The maximum power coefficient is around 0.065 for all the wind speeds except at a wind
speed of 2 m/s. In this case, the maximum power coefficient is around 0.07.

4.2.3 Torque coefficient curves

Several torque coefficient curves were generated as a function of the angular position (Fig. 7-
11). Each curve is obtained by fixing the wind speed and the tip speed ratio and shows a maxi-
mum value at an angular position below 90°.

Fig. 7: Torque coefficient as function of the angular position at a wind speed of 2 m/s

- 93 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

Fig. 8: Torque coefficient as function of the angular position at a wind speed of 4 m/s

Fig. 9: Torque coefficient as function of the angular position at a wind speed of 6 m/s

- 94 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

Fig. 10: Torque coefficient as function of the angular position at a wind speed of 8 m/s

Fig. 11: Torque coefficient as function of the angular position at a wind speed of 10 m/s

5. Conclusions
The CFD study carried out on the TWT leads to the following conclusions:
1. the TWT works at low tip speed ratios: the maximum power coefficient for a single blade
occurs at a tip speed ratio of about 0.5;
2. the exact tip speed ratio at which the maximum power coefficient occurs ranges between
0.45 and 0.55 depending on the wind speed;
3. at all analyzed wind speeds, a single blade of the TWT offers a maximum power coeffi-
cient around 0.065;

- 95 -
 
WINERCOST Workshop ‘Trends and Challenges for Wind Energy Harvesting’   Coimbra, Portugal

4. if the aerodynamic interference between the blades is negligible, the power coefficient of
the full TWT can be obtained by multiplying that of a single blade by the number of
blades. However, simulations should be performed to evaluate the aerodynamic interfer-
ence;
5. the torque coefficient curves show a maximum value at angular positions below 90°;
6. judging from the torque coefficient curves at the TWT opening angle its performance
might possibly be increased by decreasing the opening angle, which is now set to 30°;
Moreover, the TWT is at its first design stage, thus, an aerodynamic optimization study
should be carried out to evaluate the optimal geometry and opening angle.

Notation
CD Drag coefficient
ρ Air density
Vw Wind speed
Cp Power coefficient
M Torque acting on the turbine
ω Turbine rotational speed
Pref Reference power (wind power)
S Frontal area of the turbine
λ Tip speed ratio
R Radius of the turbine
Cm Torque coefficient
L Reference length, set to 1 m
ϕ Angular position

References
[1] Paraschivoiu I. Wind Turbine Design, Presses internationales Polytechnique, 2002.
[2] Best practice guideline for the CFD simulation of flows in the urban environment, COST
Action 732.
[3] Fluent 15.0 User’s Guide.
[4] Nasef MH, El-Askary WA, AbdEL-hamid AA, Gad HE. “Evaluation of Savonius rotor
performance: Static and dynamic studies”, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial
Aerodynamics, 123(A), 1-11, 2013.
[5] El-Askary WA, Nasef MH, AbdEL-hamid AA, Gad HE. “Harvesting wind energy for
improving performance of Savonius rotor”, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial
Aerodynamics, 139, 8-15, 2015.
[6] Jaohindy P, McTavish S, Garde F, Bastide A. “An analysis of the transient forces acting
on Savonius rotors with different aspect ratios”, Renewable Energy, 55, 286-295, 2013.
[7] Wang YF, Zhan MS. “3-Dimensional CFD simulation and analysis on performance of a
micro-wind turbine resembling lotus in shape”, Energy and Buildings, 65, 66-74, 2013.
[8] Ghosh A, Biswas A, Sharma KK, Gupta R. “Computational analysis of flow physics of a
combined three bladed Darrieus Savonius wind rotor”, Journal of the Energy Institute, in
press.

- 96 -