High-Efficiency Shrouded Micro Wind Turbine for Urban-Built Environment

Shrouding (diffuser augmented) horizontal axis micro-wind turbine has been shown to be an effective ways to potentially increase the power output of micro wind turbine for applications in built environments. It is well understood that the degree of the performance enhancement depends on several factors including the diffuser shape and geometries, blade airfoils, and the wind condition at the turbine site. The effect of diffuser shape and geometries is reported in this paper. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of a small wind turbine with a simple frustum diffuser shrouding have been carried out. The diffuser has been modeled with different shapes with the aim to understand the effect of length and area ratio on power augmentation phenomenon. The simulations provide some parameterized figures which present method to determine the beneficial range of frustum diffuser geometries for diffuser shrouded horizontal axis wind turbines.