EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A STRAIGHT-BLADED VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE WITH A DIRECTED GUIDE VANE ROW

The objective of this study is to show the effect of guide vane geometry on the performance of wind turbine. In order to overcome the disadvantages of vertical axis wind turbine, a straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine (S-VAWT) with a directed guide vane row has been proposed and tested by the authors. According to previous studies, it was clarified that the performance of the turbine can be improved by means of the directed guide vane row. However, the guide vane geometry of S-VAWT has not been optimized so far. In order to clarify the effect of guide vane geometry, the effects of distance between the guide vanes and the number of guide vanes on power and torque coefficients were investigated in the experiments. The experimental study was carried out by a wind tunnel. The wind tunnel with a diameter of 1.8m is open jet type. The wind velocity is from 5 to 9 m/s in the experiments. The rotor has three straight blades with a profile of NACA4518 and a chord length of 100 mm, a diameter of 0.6 m and a blade height of 0.7 m. The guide vane row consists of some arc plates.