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amplitude. The
optimum tip speed ratio (TSR) depends on the blade pitch kinematics, and it decreased with increasing
pitch amplitude for the symmetric blade pitching case. CFD analysis showed that the blade extracts
all the power in the frontal half of the circular trajectory, however, it loses power into the ow in
the rear half. One key reason for this being the large virtual camber and incidence induced by the ow
curvature eects, which slightly enhances the power extraction in the frontal half, but increases the power
loss in the rear half. Fixed-pitch turbine investigated in the present study also showed lower eciency
compared to the variable pitch turbines owing to the massive blade stall in the rear half, caused by the
large angle of attack and high reverse camber. Maximum achievable CP of the turbine increases with
higher Reynolds numbers, however, the fundamental ow physics remains relatively same irrespective of
the operating Reynolds number. This study clearly indicates the potential for major improvements in
VAWT performance with novel blade kinematics, lower chord/radius ratio, and using cambered blades.
Nomenclature
A Turbine frontal area, b D
b Blade span
c Blade chord
C
P
Coecient of power
D Turbine diameter
R Turbine radius
TSR Tip speed ratio, R/U
inf
max
Blade pitch amplitude
I. Introduction
With increasing energy costs, rapid depletion of fossil fuels and growing concerns about the environmental
eects of burning hydrocarbons, researchers have been looking at alternate, more environmentally benign
sources to create power. Wind power, a renewable and virtually inexhaustible power source, is a promis-
ing means of green energy production. However, at present, horizontal axis wind turbines are the most
established method of harvesting wind energy. Majority of the wind energy plants today, are in the form
of windmill farms having several mega-Watt capacity, comprising of large horizontal axis windmills (rated
at several 100 kWs) driving electric generators and feeding into power supply grids. A major deterrent to
the continued development of wind energy at remote sites is the limited capacity of the nations electricity
distribution grid. Therefore, there is a strong need to co-locate energy generation based on the demand in
order to reduce the load and losses in the grid system [1]. Because large cities are the biggest consumers
of electricity, it is necessary to design small scale (1-2 kW peak power), ecient, stand-alone wind turbines
(for instance, a roof-top wind turbine farm) to meet their growing energy demand. However, unlike the
large open windmill farms, extracting wind energy in an urban scenario is challenging because of the tight
space constraints and the fact that wind prole is highly turbulent with rapid uctuations, both in terms of
magnitude as well as direction.
Figure 1. Optimized xed-pitch VAWT farm developed by California Insitute of Technology [2].
In an urban scenario, where space is of the essence, an important criterion for choosing one wind turbine
concept over the other for a small windmill farm, would be the power extracted per unit ground area (also
known as power density). HAWTs are not very attractive for such a scenario because of their need to maintain
a signicant lateral (3 5 turbine diameters in cross-wind direction) and longitudinal (6 10 diameters in
downwind direction) separation between adjacent turbines and therefore would have a large footprint, or in
other words, very low power density (2 3 W/m
2
). However, previous studies have shown that vertical axis
wind turbines (VAWTs) could have very close wind turbine spacing, and if placed appropriately in a farm (as
shown in Fig. 1), it could greatly enhance the farm eciency ( 30 W/m
2
, which is almost ten times more
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power extracted per unit land area compared to HAWTs) because of the constructive interference between
the turbines [2].
Table 1. Comparison of VAWT and HAWT power densities for individual turbines.
Turbine type Rated power (MW) Turbine diameter (m) Power density (W/m
2
)
VAWT 0.0012 1.2 1061
HAWT 2.5 100 318
HAWT 3.0 112 314
The power density of a farm would eectively depend on the lateral and longitudinal spacing between
the turbines (or number of turbines per unit area) and the power density of the individual turbines itself.
Therefore, it is important to examine the power density for a single turbine, which is in fact the power
extracted per unit projected area. Note that, the area used for power density calculation in the case of a
HAWT, is the projected circular swept area when the turbine is yawed 360
(A = R
2
). Table 1 compares
the power densities of two commercially available HAWTs and one VAWT and it can be seen that the
power density of VAWT is almost three times of the HAWTs [2]. This is partly because the swept area of a
VAWT (i.e., the cross-sectional area that interacts with the wind) need not be equally apportioned between
its breadth, which determines the size of its footprint, and its height. By contrast, the circular sweep of
HAWT blades dictates that the breadth and height of the rotor swept area are identical. Therefore, whereas
increasing HAWT rotor swept area necessarily increases the turbine footprint, it is possible to increase
the swept area of a VAWT independent of its footprint, by increasing the rotor blade height. Therefore,
theoretically, for a VAWT, the power density could be increased indenitely by increasing the turbine height
until it encounters other constraints which would limit its maximum height.
Even though VAWTs have very high power densities compared to HAWTs, the reason why VAWTs
never gained popularity was because most of the VAWTs built so far used xed blade pitch angle (Fig. 1),
and this conguration suers from very low eciency especially at low tip speed ratios (TSR) (TSR=blade
speed/wind speed, R/U
inf
) and are only self-starting for certain wind directions. Note that, until recently,
the eciency was the biggest concern for wind turbines and the farm power density was less of a factor,
because turbines were mostly installed at remote locations where there are no space constraints. However,
today, for a small-scale wind turbine to be used in an urban environment, power density is as important
as the turbine eciency. Therefore, the next generation small-scale turbines need to have not just high
eciencies, but also high power densities. Hence, a VAWT design may be a better starting point than
HAWTs for the design of wind farms with high power density. However, it is important to realize that the
eciency of xed-pitch VAWTs needs to be improved signicantly.
Previous studies have shown that the eciency of a VAWT could be improved by appropriately mod-
ulating the pitch angle of the blade (dynamic pitching) as it moves around the azimuth as shown in
Fig. 2(a) [1, 36]. However, these studies were not comprehensive enough to fully understand the physics
or optimize the performance of such a concept. Another key barrier in practically implementing such a
turbine was developing a simplied blade pitch mechanism. Most of the previous studies proposed mecha-
nisms, which were complicated (such as active blade pitching using individual blade actuators) and required
signicant amount of power to dynamically vary blade pitch. Other pitching mechanisms that have been
developed were passive in nature, and therefore, utilized the inertial and aerodynamic forces acting on the
blade to dynamically pitch the blade. Hence, the blade pitch schedule was a function of the operating con-
ditions, leading to very low eciencies. These are some of the reasons why such a turbine remained elusive,
even though, it has the potential to acheive high eciency (comparable to HAWTs) along with high power
density. Therefore, one of the key focuses of the present research was to develop a simplied, practically
feasible blade pitching mechanism so that such a turbine could become a reality.
The long-term goal of the present research is to develop a revolutionary, small-scale (diameter of 2
meters) variable pitch VAWT (1-2 kW range) with extremely high eciency and power density to be used
in urban environments such as roof-tops. The turbine should be able to be used individually or in a small
farm, in which case, the optimal locations of these turbines will have to be determined. The present study
is the rst step towards acheiving this goal and is focused on two key objectives, which are: (1) develop
a turbine prototype utilizing a simplied, low-power consumption blade pitch mechanism and demonstrate
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(a) Blade pitch kinematics and dention of coordinate
system on a variable-pitch VAWT.
(b) Experimental setup in the open-jet wind tunnel.
Figure 2. Variable-pitch VAWT.
the feasibility of this concept through wind tunnel testing, and (2) develop a 2-D CFD model, validate the
model with test data from the wind-tunnel studies, and then use the validated model to understand the
physics of power extraction of such a turbine. The insights gained from this study could be used to design
more ecient VAWTs in the future.
II. VAWT Prototype and Experimental Setup
An instrumented VAWT prototype has been designed and built as shown in Fig. 2(b). The pitch angle
of each of the blades is varied periodically as the blade moves around the azimuth using a four-bar based
passive pitching mechanism, the details of which are discussed in the next section. The cyclic blade pitching
kinematics is shown in Fig. 2(a). The present setup was designed such that the blade pitch amplitude (
max
)
and the pitch phasing () could be easily varied. The turbine has a diameter and blade span of 10 inches, and
a uniform blade chord of 2.5 inches with NACA 0015 airfoil section. It is important for the VAWT blades
to be lightweight and have a high stiness to weight ratio to minimize bending and torsional deformations
and also the structural loads at high rotational speeds. Therefore, the present blades utilized an innovative
structural design, where the blades were fabricated using a single layer of carbon prepreg wrapped around a
foam core and then baked inside a mold.
The entire setup was placed in front of an open-jet wind tunnel with a test-section of 22 inch by 22 inch as
shown in Fig. 2(b). The rotational speed of the turbine (and hence the torque) was varied for a constant wind
speed by adjusting the voltage supplied to the custom-built electromagnetic brake. The braking torque was
measured using a non-rotating reaction-based torque load cell (shown in Fig. 2(b)) and the turbine rotational
speed was measured using a laser tachometer. When the turbine attains a steady rotational speed, the power
generated by the turbine is calculated from the measured braking torque and rotational speed.
A. Pitch Mechanism Design
A simplied blade pitch changing mechanism is the key to the success of a variable pitch VAWT. The previous
more involved design of pitching mechanisms was the main reason why the variable pitch VAWTs became
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(a) Schematic showing the blade pitch mechanism.
(b) Actual blade pitch mechanism on the VAWT proto-
type.
Figure 3. Four-bar based blade pitch mechanism on the present variable-pitch VAWT prototype.
unpopular in the late 1970s, even though they were proven to be self-starting and much more ecient than
their xed pitch counterparts as well as even HAWTs. Therefore, a key focus of the present study was to
develop a simplied blade pitch mechanism.
As shown in Fig. 3(a), the present pitching mechanism is based on a four-bar linkage system, which
is designed in such a way that the blade pitches automatically in a cyclic fashion as the turbine rotates.
Therefore, the only power penalty incurred in its operation is the frictional losses associated with the moving
components. As shown in the schematic, L
1
, L
2
, L
3
and L
4
are the four linkage lengths. The key component
of the pitching mechanism is the oset link of length L
2
. The pitch links (of length L
3
) are connected to
the end of the oset link on one end and the other end is connected to point B, on the blade, which is at a
distance L
4
behind the pitching axis. The connections at both ends of the pitch link are through pin joints
to allow the rotational degree of freedom. The radius of the rotor forms the linkage length L
1
. With this
arrangement, as the rotor rotates, the blades automatically pitch, where the pitching amplitude depends
on the oset length, L
2
, when the other linkage lengths remain xed. The actual pitching mechanism
implemented on the VAWT prototype is shown in Fig. 3(b). The four-bar linkage system can be clearly seen
in the gure.
As explained before, the magnitude of the oset (L
2
) changes the blade pitching amplitude and the
direction in which the oset link is pointing would change the phasing of the cyclic blade pitching as shown
in Fig. 4(a). For the sake of simplicity, the present prototype is designed such that the oset length (L
2
)
could not be changed while the turbine is rotating (Fig. 3(b)), which means the blade pitch kinematics (pitch
amplitude,
max
) is xed. However, as shown in Fig. 4(a), in the present mechanism, the oset link could be
rotated to actively change the phasing of the cyclic pitch () depending on the direction of incoming wind
to maximize eciency. This method of altering the phasing of blade pitching is instantaneous and much
simpler than rotating the entire HAWT in the direction of the wind. This capability of the present VAWT
pitch mechanism, to immediately respond to a change in wind direction, is the key to maximizing the power
extraction in urban environments where wind direction changes rapidly.
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(a) Adjusting the pitch phasing by rotating the oset
link to adapt to the change in wind direction. (b) CFD grid system used for the 5 inch radius 4-bladed
cyclorotors with 2.5 inch blade chord.
Figure 4. Four-bar based blade pitch mechanism on the present variable-pitch VAWT prototype and the CFD
grid system.
III. 2D CFD Methodology
A 2-D CFD study was also conducted to understand the ow physics of a variable-pitch turbine. CFD
simulations were performed for the same turbine geometry used in the experimental study at dierent pitch
amplitudes, tip speed ratios and Reynolds numbers (Re). The details of the ow solver and grid system used
in the present study are given below.
A. Flow Solver
2-D simulations of the VAWT were undertaken using a compressible structured overset RANS solver, OVER-
TURNS [7]. This overset structured mesh solver uses the diagonal form of the implicit approximate fac-
torization method developed by Pulliam and Chaussee [8] with a preconditioned dual-time scheme to solve
the compressible RANS equations. Computations are performed in the inertial frame in a time-accurate
manner. A third-order MUSCL scheme [9] with Roe ux dierence splitting [10] and Korens limiter [11]
is used to compute the inviscid terms, and second-order central dierencing is used for the viscous terms.
Due to the relatively low Mach numbers in which the present turbine operate, the inclusion of a low Mach
preconditioner based on Turkels [12] method accelerates the convergence and ensures accuracy of the solu-
tion. Spalart-Allmaras [13] turbulence model is employed for RANS closure. This one-equation model has
the advantages of ease of implementation, computational eciency and numerical stability.
B. Grid System
An overset system of meshes, consisting of C-type airfoil mesh for each blade and a cylindrical background
mesh, is used for the computation. The airfoil meshes have 255 55 grid points in the wraparound and
normal directions, respectively. The background cylindrical mesh has 245 221 points in the azimuthal and
radial directions, respectively. Implicit hole-cutting method developed by Lee [14] and rened by Laksh-
minarayan [7] is used to nd the connectivity information between the overset meshes. Figure 4(b) shows
the mesh system used for the present turbine. In these gures, only the eld points (points where the ow
equations are solved) are shown. All the points that are blanked out either receive information from another
mesh or lies inside a solid body and therefore, does not have a valid solution.
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IV. Results
For a xed turbine geometry, the two key blade kinematic parameters that signicatly aect power extraction
on a variable-pitch VAWT are blade pitch amplitude (
max
) and the pitch phasing () (shown in Fig. 2(a)).
However, preliminary experimental and CFD studies have shown that aligning the oset link along the
direction of the wind or zero pitch phasing (=0, as shown in Fig. 3(a)) would maximize power extraction.
Therefore, all the results discussed in the present study are for zero pitch phasing, which means the blade
attains maximum pitch angle at the front ( = 90
to 35
in steps of 5
and
the pitching axis was at the quarter chord. Only symmetric pitch kinematics was investigated in the present
study, which means the blade has the same pitch angle variation in the frontal and rear halves. Tip speed
ratio was varied from around 0.2 (turbine rpm = 158) up to 1.1 (rpm = 870) for experimental studies and
up to 1.6 for CFD studies by changing the turbine rotational speed and keeping the wind speed xed at 10
m/s. The wind speed was kept xed so that the average chord-based Reynolds number would stay the same,
which was around 40,000.
A. Methodology
As explained in the previous section, the power extracted by the turbine was calculated from the measured
brake torque (with the electromagnetic brake) and its rotational speed. The inherent assumption here being,
once the turbine reaches steady state, the power extracted by the turbine is equal to the braking power.
However, the goal of the present experiment was not to measure the net aerodynamic power output of the
turbine, but, the complete power extracted by the blades, which does not include the power lost (or parasitic
power) in rotating the rest of the turbine structure such as the endplates, pitch links, etc. Assuming all the
power on a turbine is extracted by the blades, when the turbine reaches the equilibrium speed, the relation
below should be satised.
P
blades
= P
brake
+P
parasite
(1)
where P
blades
is the power extracted by the blades, P
brake
is the braking power, which is also the measured
power and P
parasite
is the parasitic power required to rotate the rest of the rotor structure (excluding blades),
which could also include the frictional loses. This relation (Eqn. 1) shows that the measured power (P
brake
) is
not equal to the power extracted by the blades, unless the parasitic power is negligible. Therefore, tare tests
were conducted in the wind tunnel by rotating rest of the turbine structure (excluding blades), using a motor
at the exact same operating conditions (wind speed = 10 m/s and equilibrium rotational speeds) where each
of the turbine power measurements were taken. The motor power is measured in these experiments from
the motor torque (obtained using a separate torque sensor) and its rotating speed. The measured motor
power is essentially the parasitic power (or tare power) required to rotate the turbine structure. Then, this
parasitic power (P
parasite
) was added to the previously measured brake power (P
brake
) to obtain the total
aerodynamic power extracted by just the blades (P
blades
) (Eqn. 1).
If the tare power was not added to the brake power, the measurements would still be useful, because it
would be an indicator of the complete system aerodynamic eciency. However, such measurements would
be very specic to this particular turbine because the rest of the turbine structure could change from one
experimental setup to another. Also, the results from these experiments need to be used for validating
lower-order aerodynamic models or CFD models, which in most cases would not be able to simulate the
rest of the rotor structure, pitch-links, etc. This would not be an issue while testing a conventional HAWT
because the parasitic power associated with turbine hub is negligible compared to the power extracted by
the blades.
It is important to note that the parasitic power measured during the tare tests were almost the same
order as the brake power and therefore cannot be neglected. This means that a signicant portion of the
power extracted by the blades is lost in rotating the rest of the turbine structure itself and is therefore
wasted. This emphasizes the need for designing more aerodynamically clean turbine structure if the system
eciency of such a turbine is to be increased.
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0 0.5 1 1.5 2
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Tip speed ratio, TSR
C
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t
o
f
p
o
w
e
r
,
C
P
20
25
30
35
, 25
, 30
and 35
)
CFD prediction (20
)
(a) Variation of coecient of power (C
P
) with tip speed
ratio (TSR) for 20
)
CFD prediction (25
)
(b) Variation of coecient of power (C
P
) with tip speed
ratio (TSR) for 25
and 25
blade pitching
amplitudes (wind speed = 10 m/s).
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B. Experimental Results and CFD Validation
Experimental results showing the variation of coecient of power (C
P
) as a function of tip speed ratio (TSR)
for 20
, 25
, 30
and 35
, 25
and 30
and 35
(close to 1).
The 20
and 25
and 25
blade
pitch amplitudes. Once the model was validated, the next step would be to utilize this model to understand
this concept. However, before that, it is essential to introduce the idea of virtual camber and incidence
eects (ow curvature eects) experienced by the turbine blades as they move along a circular trajectory.
Flow curvature eects play a signicant role in the instantaneous aerodynamic forces experienced by the
blade especially when the chord to radius is high as in the case of the present turbine (c/R=0.5).
(a) Virtual camber and incidence in a curvilinear ow. (b) Schematic explaining virtual camber.
Figure 7. Schematic explaining virtual camber and incidence (ow curvature) eects.
C. Flow Curvature Eects (Virtual Camber and Incidence Eects)
Virtual camber/incidence eect is an aerodynamic phenomenon that would occur when the blades undergo
an orbital motion and therefore experience a curvilinear ow [15, 16]. Blades subjected to a curvilinear ow
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behave very dierently compared to being immersed in a rectilinear ow (Fig. 7(a)). In a curvilinear ow,
the local velocity and angle of attack of the blade are unique at dierent locations on the chord. Because
of this, a symmetric blade at 0
at the bottom-most point of the blade trajectory. Point A is the pitching axis of the blade.
For the sake of explanation, resultant velocity at any location on the blade chord is assumed a function of
the rotational speed only (the freestream velocity and the pitch rate eects are ignored). Thus, as shown
in Fig. 7(b), the magnitude and direction of the resultant velocity varies along the chord. The angle of
incidence of the ow at any arbitrary location on the chord, x, is given by
x
= tan
1
(x/R) (
x
x/R)
and the velocity magnitude is given by R
where R
R
2
+x
2
.
Now this scenario is approximately equivalent to having a cambered airfoil, with the camber line slope
(dy/dx) equal to
x
in a rectilinear ow of magnitude R as shown in Fig. 7(a). Because of the large
chord/radius ratio (c/R=0.5) of the present turbine, using a linear approximation, virtual camber is about
6% of chord and the virtual incidence is about 7
25
30
, 25
and
30
, 25
and 30
to =180
to =360
).
The power extracted by the blade at any instant, is the product of the instantaneous tangential aero-
dynamic force experienced by the blade and the blade speed. If the blade is moving in the same direction
as the tangential force, the power is positive or the blade is extracting power and if the blade is moving
opposite to the direction of tangential force, the power is negative or the blade is losing energy into the ow.
Therefore, it should be possible to explain the power variation shown in Fig. 8 by examining the aerodynamic
forces experienced by the blade at dierent azimuthal locations. Key to obtaining the aerodynamic force is
computing the resultant velocity and blade angle of attack, which could be calculated from blade kinematics,
local wind speed and also incorporating the virtual camber and incidence due to the ow curvature eects.
The only unknown here is the local wind velocity, which could be obtained from the CFD predicted oweld.
2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
X distance from center (in radii)
Y
d
i
s
t
a
n
c
e
f
r
o
m
c
e
n
t
e
r
(
i
n
r
a
d
i
i
)Upstream Downstream
Figure 9. Flow prole viewed from top, averaged over a revolution, upstream and downstream of the turbine,
where velocity is normalized by U
inf
and distance by turbine radius (center of the turbine, X=0 and Y =0).
Figure 9 shows the CFD computed velocity prole across the turbine averaged over a revolution, upstream
and downstream of the turbine, where velocity is normalized by U
inf
and distance by turbine radius. In
the downstream section, the momentum decit caused due to power extraction could be clearly seen. The
same information is shown in a more quantitative form in Figs. 10(a) and 10(b), which show the X and Y
components of the time-averaged wind velocity, respectively, at dierent distances upstream and downstream
of the turbine. From, Figs. 9 and 10, it can be seen that there is not much decrease in wind speed ahead
of the turbine (X distance = -2, -1.5 and -1 radii). However, after the ow passes the frontal half of the
turbine, the free stream velocity drops to almost half its value at least along X axis. Therefore, the ow
intersects the blade around = 270
with almost half the speed. It also interesting to see that the ow
velocity increases slightly as it passes across the rear half (X distance = 1 radius) which is consistent with
power lost to the ow in the rear section (Fig. 8).
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1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
Normalized velocity (Xcomponent), U/U
inf
Y
d
i
s
t
a
n
c
e
f
r
o
m
c
e
n
t
e
r
(
i
n
r
a
d
i
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)
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
X distance from
center (in radii)
(ve upstream,
+ve downstream)
Momentum
deficiency
downstream
(a) Velocity component along X axis (U).
0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
Normalized velocity (Ycomponent), V/U
inf
Y
d
i
s
t
a
n
c
e
f
r
o
m
c
e
n
t
e
r
(
i
n
r
a
d
i
i
)
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
X distance from
center (in radii)
(ve upstream,
+ve downstream)
(b) Velocity component along Y axis (V ).
Figure 10. Variation of X and Y velocity components (U and V ) across the turbine diameter (along Y axis)
averaged about one revolution.
Having obtained the average ow velocities across the turbine, it is now possible to calculate the resultant
velocity and the blade angle of attack at dierent azimuthal locations, which could be used to explain the
magnitude and direction of the blade forces. Figure 11 shows the CFD predicted oweld (pressure contours
with streamlines superimposed) with relative ow velocities and blade forces for a turbine operating at 25
blade pitch amplitude at tip speed ratio (TSR) of 1. Note that, the length and direction of the arrows
denoting the dierent velocity components are proportional to the actual velocity vectors. The gure also
shows the virtual blade with the induced camber and incidence, which could increase or decrease the eective
pitch angle of the blade, depending on the azimuthal location. For the pressure contours, the pressure is
normalized with the free stream static pressure or the atmospheric pressure.
It was shown in Fig. 8 that the maximum power extraction occurs in the frontal half especially close to
= 90
. Therefore, it is important to closely examine the oweld around the blade and forces experienced
by the blade at = 90
using Fig. 11. As shown in the gure, at this location, because of the large angle
of attack and signicant virtual camber, the blade produces a high lift force which is shown by the large
low pressure region (denoted by blue) on top of the blade. A signicant component of this lift force would
contribute to the blade tangential force which is also in the same direction of the blade motion, leading to
a high positive power or power extraction. Figure 8 also showed that the blade loses energy to the ow in
the rear half of the turbine and the power loss is maximum around = 270
,
even though the lift force is high because of large resultant speed, there is no component in the tangential
direction and hence does not contribute to power. However, there was a slight negative power at this location
(Fig. 8) because of the drag force acting opposite to the blade motion. At = 180
and 30
pitch amplitudes, respectively. Comparing these gures, it can be seen that even though there are small
dierences in the actual magnitude of the pressure eld, the fundamental physics still stays the same as
explained in Fig. 11. This clearly explains the physics of power extraction on a variable pitch VAWT and
establishes the fact that the reason for poor performance in the rear half of the turbine in not because the
frontal half has extracted all the power from the ow, in which case, the rear half performance could not
improved. Therefore, this indicates the potential for huge improvements in VAWT performance with novel
blade kinematics, lower chord/radius ratio, and even cambered blades, which can extract power or at least,
minimize power loss in the rear half.
E. Eect of Tip Speed Ratio
It would be useful to investigate the eect of tip speed ratio to understand why the performance of the
present turbine was highest close to TSR of 1. Figure 13 shows the variation of CFD-predicted coecient
of power (C
P
) for one blade as it goes around the azimuth at 25
.
Figure 12. CFD predicted oweld (pressure contours with streamlines superimposed) for a turbine operating
at 20
and 30
blade
pitch amplitude for tip speed ratios (TSR) of 0.6, 1, and 1.4, obtained using CFD (positive C
P
denotes power
extraction and negative C
P
is power lost to the ow).
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(a) Tip speed ratio (TSR) = 0.6. (b) Tip speed ratio (TSR) = 1.4.
Figure 14. Physics of power extraction for dierent tip speeds ratios explained using simple aerodynamics
and the CFD predicted oweld for a variable-pitch turbine operating at a 25
azimuthal location in Fig. 14(b) (TSR = 1.4), it can be seen that the blade angle of
attack is much below stall, which would increase the lift to drag ratio compared the lower TSR case, which
along with the higher resultant velocity would result in a higher tangential force in the direction of motion.
Higher tangential force coupled with higher blade speed would signicantly enhance power extraction.
It would be also interesting to see what happens at rear half of the turbine specically at 270
azimuthal
location, where the higher tip speed ratio case (TSR = 1.4) is losing signicant amount of power back into the
ow, whereas the almost no power is lost for the lower TSR case (TSR = 0.6) (Fig. 13). Examining =270
location for the 0.6 TSR case from Fig. 14(a), it can be seen that, based on the direction of resultant velocity,
the blade is close to zero lift angle of attack, and this could be the reason why the blade is not producing any
lift as shown by the CFD pressure contours. However, the blade could be producing a small drag force and
that could be the reason for the small negative power at =270
location for the 1.4 TSR case (Fig. 14(b)), it can be seen that the blade is operating at an angle of attack
which would produce a high lift to drag ratio. Unfortunately, at this location, both lift and drag forces
contribute to a tangential force opposite to the direction of blade motion and hence leads to large negative
power.
F. Variable Pitch versus Constant Pitch
Having understood the operating principle of a variable-pitch VAWT, it would be interesting to compare
it to a xed-pitch VAWT and also try to understand the reason for the lower eciency with the latter
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conguration. Even though, an attempt was made to perform wind tunnel experiments on a xed-pitch
turbine, the results were not consistent because of the extremely low values of the torque and rotational
speed measured at 10 m/s wind speed. Therefore, the CFD analysis was used to investigate the xed-pitch
VAWT concept.
Figure 15(a) shows the variation of coecient of power (C
P
) with tip speed ratio (TSR) for xed-pitch and
variable-pitch turbines. In this case, the variable-pitch turbine was operating at 20
constant pitch angle. As shown in the gure, the xed-pitch turbine had extremely
low eciency and at higher TSRs, it was operating at negative C
P
s which would not be practically feasible.
To understand this, it is important to look at the time history of power extraction for one blade, which is
shown in Figure 15(b) for TSR = 1. As shown in the gure, for the xed-pitch turbine, much less power is
extracted in the front and slightly more power is lost to the ow in the rear.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
Tip speed ratio, TSR
C
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t
o
f
p
o
w
e
r
,
C
P
Variable pitch, 20
(CFD)
Constant pitch, +20
(CFD)
(a) Variation of coecient of power (C
P
) with tip speed
ratio (TSR) for xed-pitch and variable-pitch turbines.
0 90 180 270 360
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Azimuthal location, (deg)
C
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t
o
f
p
o
w
e
r
,
C
P
Variable pitch, 20
(CFD)
Constant pitch, +20
(CFD)
Frontal half Rear half
Power extracted
from flow
Power lost
to flow
(b) Variation of coecient of power (C
P
) for one blade as
it goes around the azimuth on xed-pitch and variable-
pitch turbines for TSR = 1, obtained using CFD (pos-
itive C
P
denotes power extraction and negative C
P
is
power lost to the ow).
Figure 15. Coecient power (C
P
) for variable- (20
), the basic ow physics for the xed pitch case is not very dierent from the variable pitch
case (Figure 11). Even then the power extraction at =90
pitch amplitude at Reynolds numbers of 40,000, 100,000, 200,000 and 300,000. Even
though the trends remain the same, as shown in Fig. 18(b), the maximum achievable C
P
increases with
Reynolds numbers. It can be seen that the rate of increase in C
Pmax
with Reynolds number decreases
with increase in Reynolds numbers. Figure 19 shows the azimuthal variation of C
P
for dierent Reynolds
numbers. The power extraction improves with increasing Reynolds number in the frontal half, however,
Reynolds number has no eect in the rear half. This could be because of the fact that in the present turbine,
the blade is operating at relatively higher angle of attack in the frontal half (as shown in Fig. 11) where
the Reynolds number would have an eect on blade lift and drag coecients. However, in the rear half the
angles of attack are much smaller (Fig. 11), in which case the Reynolds number would have low inuence.
Figures 20(a) and 20(b) shows the CFD predicted pressure contours with streamlines for Reynolds num-
bers of 40,000 and 300,000, respectively. It can be seen that the owelds are very similar except at =90
,
where the low pressure region on top of the blade is slightly stronger at 300,000 Reynolds number which is
due to the higher lift producing capability of the blade at higher Reynolds numbers. This is also the reason
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0 90 180 270 360
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Azimuthal location, (deg)
C
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t
o
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p
o
w
e
r
,
C
P
40,000
100,000
200,000
300,000
Power extracted
from flow
Reynolds number
Frontal half Rear half
Power lost
to flow
Figure 19. Variation of coecient of power (C
P
) for one blade as it goes around the azimuth at 25
blade
pitch amplitude for a tip speed ratio (TSR) of 1 at dierent Reynolds numbers, obtained using CFD (positive
C
P
denotes power extraction and negative C
P
is power lost to the ow).
(a) Reynolds number = 40,000. (b) Reynolds number = 300,000.
Figure 20. CFD predicted oweld (pressure contours with streamlines superimposed) for a turbine operating
at 25
)), was investigated in the present study. A 2-D CFD model was
developed and the model predictions correlated extremely well with test data. The validated CFD model
was used to develop a fundamental understanding of the physics of power extraction on such a turbine. The
following are specic conclusions drawn from this study:
1. A novel simplied passive blade pitching mechanism has been developed for the present VAWT proto-
type, where the blade pitching is kinematically coupled to turbine rotation. In the present mechanism,
the phasing of blade cyclic pitching could be actively changed depending on the direction of incoming
wind to maximize eciency. This method of altering the phasing of blade pitching is instantaneous
and much simpler than rotating the entire HAWT in the direction of the wind. This capability of the
present VAWT pitch mechanism, to immediately respond to a change in wind direction, is the key to
maximizing power extraction in urban environments where wind direction changes rapidly.
2. Both experimental and CFD studies showed that the turbine eciency is a strong function of blade
pitching amplitude, with the highest eciency occurring around 20
to 25
), a xed pitch turbine had lower eciency than the variable pitch turbine
owing to the massive blade stall in the rear half caused by the large angle of attack and high reverse
camber. This large ow separation was even aecting the ow eld in the frontal half. Again, the
performance of the xed-pitch turbines could be enhanced by reducing the pitch angle and chord/radius
ratio, or by using cambered blades. Fixed pitch turbine could also perform better at higher tip speed
ratios because it could reduce the angle of attack in the rear half and avoid stall.
6. The CFD study showed that the maximum achievable C
P
for the turbine increases with higher Reynolds
numbers. However, the rate of increase decreased with increasing Reynolds numbers. For an increase
of Reynolds number from 40,000 to 300,000, there was an increase in maximum power of about 15%.
The reason for this increase is because of the increased power extraction in the frontal half at higher
Reynolds numbers resulting from the blades operating at higher lift-to-drag ratio. The power in the
rear half remained relatively unchanged with increasing Reynolds number for the pitching kinematics
investigated in the present study.
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VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors would also like to thank Professor Allen Winkelmann for providing the opportunity to conduct
experiments in the open-jet wind tunnel facility at the University of Maryland.
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