Experimental and numerical investigation of vertical axis wind turbine blade performance

In this study, the performance of the vertical axis wind turbine's blade was examined experimentally and numerically. New profiles have been developed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis. with parametric and numerical optimization methods by taking NACA0012 blade profile which is widely used in the literature as a reference. In parametric optimization, the upper and lower camber of the blade geometry was changed systematically, while in numerical optimization, the lift and drift coefficients were taken as parameter and the NACA 0012-α ve NACA 0012-β blade profiles maximizing the CL/CD ratio were obtained, respectively. Developed profiles were produced by fused deposition modelling and power data were obtained expermentally for 3, 4, and 5 blades turbines. The maximum power for NACA 0012 and NACA 0012-β profiles was obtained from 4 blade türbine while for NACA 0012-α profile the maximum power was obtained from 5 blade turbine. A 19% power coefficient was obtained from the reference profile while 23% and 29% power coefficients were obtained from NACA0012-α and NACA0012-β profiles respectively for 4 blade turbine. The blade profile obtained from numeric optimization has 27% more power coefficient from the one obtained from parametric optimization.