Comparitive CFD Analysis of Darrieus Wind Turbine with NTU-20-V and NACA0018 Airfoils

The present work numerically explores the performance characteristics of Darrieus turbine with NTU-20-V and NACA 0018 airfoils. The NTU-20-V airfoil was carved out to enhance the fatigue life of the aluminium extruded blades by reinforcing with glass fiber material in standard shapes. The earlier studies by the authors include conceiving the airfoil profile through genetic algorithm optimization followed by experimental aerodynamic characterization in terms of lift and drag coefficients. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the performance of Darrieus rotor with NTU-20-V airfoil in terms of power coefficient and torque coefficient for different Reynolds number and compare it with standard NACA0018 airfoil from which the new airfoil was derived. The computational exploration is anticipated to shed light on the flow characteristics with respect to NACA 0018 airfoil.