Effects of the leading and trailing edge shape on the aerodynamic performance of a vertical axis wind turbine

In this study, the aerodynamic performance of airfoils with changing leading edge radius and trailing edge shape is systematically analyzed using computational fluid dynamic methods. The k-co SST turbulence model is adopted. According to the tangential force coefficient, the optimal airfoil is selected for the vertical axis wind turbine. It is found that the optimized airfoil could offer 10% more wind energy utilization rate than NACA0015 under the same conditions, and it has a wider range of tip speed ratio of high efficiency, so the vertical axis wind turbine with an installed airfoil has a higher utilization rate of wind energy and a bigger scope of work.