Comparison Of 1KW Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Performance Using Numerical Simulation

In this paper, we studied two different rotor blade designs of 1kw of Horizontal axis wind turbine (Hawt) using commercial CFD software Ansys Fluent. The baseline design is developed using a genetic algorithm by considering the starting time and power coefficient as design parameters. The improved design is developed through an iterative approach using open source software QBlade. Detailed aerodynamic characteristics of both blade designs are investigated and compared with CFD results that shows the maximum power coefficient of the improved design is 11% more than the baseline design. The CFD results demonstrate that aerodynamic performance of improved blade not only increased in design point but also better performs in off-design conditions. A Grid independence study is conducted to check variations in results, and the y-plus value is also investigated along entire blade surface to ensure that mesh is fine enough for selected turbulence model.