Computational Investigation of Energy Generation by Vertical Axis Wind Turbine using Highway Wind Turbulence

Abstract

With increase in world’s population and economic development, there has been larger energy demand in recent times, experts predict that by 2050 the global energy increase nearly 50% compared with 2020. According to the same source, there will be energy demand increase by 1.3% per year, this increase in energy demand has also resulted to increase in global warming with CO2
emission because a substantial of the energy generated is from the fossil fuel. One promising avenue in this quest for sustainability is the deployment of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) for energy generation along highways but the operational performance and efficiency of VAWTs represent critical challenges in the field of renewable energy, their efficiency and operational reliability have remained subjects of concern, they often face challenges related to self-starting in region with inconsistent or lower wind speed conditions. The main objective of this work is to analyze the performance of VAWT and come up with optimum parameter for our design.
Parametric studies were carried out using Computation Fluid Dynamics with ANSYS fluent and structural analysis with Fusion 360. We found out that symmetrical airfoils (have a moment coefficient (Cm) close to zero or with a small variation with angle of attack. In contrast, asymmetrical airfoil (S1223 in this case) has variable moment coefficient values with changes in
angle of attack making it less stable and potentially requiring additional control mechanisms to manage the turbine’s orientation.