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International CAE Conference Program

 

Numerical Analysis of a Darrieus Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine for Bare and Shrouded Rotor Configurations

Marco Raciti Castelli, Lorenzo Rossato, Ernesto Benini
University of Padova

A two-dimensional CFD analysis of a straight-bladed Darrieus-type vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) for both bare and shrouded rotor configurations is presented. After describing the computational model and the relative validation procedure, a preliminary campaign of simulations, based on full RANS unsteady calculations, is proposed for a classical NACA 0021 three-bladed rotor architecture. Flow field characteristics in the neighborhood of the rotor are investigated for several values of the tip speed ratio, allowing a quantification of the influence of the channeling device on the main flow geometric features, thus obtaining a better understanding of channeling devices basic physics and laying the bases for the development of a numerical methodology for shroud geometry design and its optimization process.