Manufacturing Science and Technology(CEASE PUBLICATION) Vol. 4(3), pp. 35 - 42
DOI: 10.13189/mst.2017.040301
Reprint (PDF) (541Kb)

Computational Analysis on Application of Tubercles for the Performance Improvement of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

Eldhose Thomas ^1,*, Vivek V Kumar ^1,2, Dinuraj V.D ¹, Nithin S Lal ¹, Dilip A Shah ^2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toc H Institute of Science and Technology (TIST), India
² School of Aeronautical Sciences, Hindustan University, India

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we aim to delay the onset of stall phenomenon of the blades by applying leading edge modifications to the turbine blade. In nature, the control over the phenomenon of stall is observed in case of Humpback Whales. For these marine creatures, their flippers are having certain projections called tubercles which help it delay flow separation while performing tight underwater maneuvers while preying .These tubercles acts like a passive vortex generator at the tip of blade [2]. So we selected an optimum design from literatures to study their effects when applied to wind turbine blade airfoils. A widely used wind turbine airfoil developed by Delft University in Netherlands was chosen for this project. CFD analysis was used to evaluate and compare the aerodynamic characteristics like lift and drag coefficients of the tubercle modified and the baseline airfoil. The aerodynamic characteristics were analyzed at various angles of attack (AOA) of the airfoil and the study was mainly focused at the performance on the stall angles of the airfoil. After the numerical analysis of the tubercle modified wind turbine airfoil, it was found that the coefficient of lift was increased and coefficient of drag was reduced in the stalling angles effectively delaying the stall. Also it was observed that the tubercle modification does not have any detrimental effects on the aerodynamic performance in the pre-stall regions.

KEYWORDS
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine, Humpback Whale Flipper, Tubercles, Lift, Drag, Stalling of Airfoil

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Eldhose Thomas , Vivek V Kumar , Dinuraj V.D , Nithin S Lal , Dilip A Shah , "Computational Analysis on Application of Tubercles for the Performance Improvement of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine," Manufacturing Science and Technology(CEASE PUBLICATION), Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 35 - 42, 2017. DOI: 10.13189/mst.2017.040301.

(b). APA Format:
Eldhose Thomas , Vivek V Kumar , Dinuraj V.D , Nithin S Lal , Dilip A Shah (2017). Computational Analysis on Application of Tubercles for the Performance Improvement of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine. Manufacturing Science and Technology(CEASE PUBLICATION), 4(3), 35 - 42. DOI: 10.13189/mst.2017.040301.