MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A THREE-DIMENSIONAL ADJUSTABLE HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINE BLADE, USING A COMMERCIAL COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) CODE

Wind turbines are subjected to variable wind speeds and flow patterns, this can result in variable power output from the wind turbine. A common practice to counter this problem is to create a twisted wind turbine blade, which can produce optimum output when subjected to different velocities and angle of attack. The research paper discusses the performance characteristics of the same. The research paper presents CFD modeling of a twisted blade. The strategy used for the modeling was to divide the research in two parts. In the first part CFD simulations for 2-D Airfoils were carried-out and the aerodynamic characteristics were examined. In the second part, for more realistic results, a complete 3-D Wind turbine 3 blades rotor with nacelle was examined. For both parts GAMBIT was used for geometry and grid creation (pre-processing), whereas ANSYS FLUENT was used for performing simulations and obtaining the contour plots (Processing and Post Processing).