Numerical studies on two turbulence models and a laminar model for aerodynamics of a vertical-axis wind turbine

The purpose of this study is the analysis of flow around a one-bladed Darrieus-type wind turbine using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The rotor geometry consists of a NACA 0015 airfoil with chord length of 0.15 m. Numerical simulations are performed using ANSYS Fluent, employing laminar model and two turbulence models: SST k-omega and RNG k-epsilon. The obtained numerical results of unsteady aerodynamic blade loads are compared with available experimental results from literature. Computed aerodynamic characteristics of normal and tangential forces comply with the experiment results. The RNG k-epsilon turbulence model has a good accuracy in determining aerodynamic blade loads for the upwind and downwind parts of the rotor. The laminar model and the SST k-omega turbulence model slightly overestimate the tangential aerodynamic blade loads at the downwind part of the rotor. An averaged wind turbine velocity profile computed at one rotor radius downstream of the rotor has a Gaussian shape. The steady-state airfoil characteristics are computed for the Reynolds number comparable to the Reynolds number of a moving blade employing the SST k-omega and RNG k-epsilon turbulence models and using the same computational grid as for unsteady simulations of the rotor.