Study Project Wind Turbine Design

- on basis of the DOWEC 6 MW project -

Student’s name:
Sanjay Ranganath Haliyur
Kay Lennard Grote
Luka Raulf

Lecturer: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Stank

Hamburg, 2017-07-06
 I Index

1
1 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 5
2 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 6
3 Goal and Achievements ..................................................................................................... 6
4 Redesign and Drawing of Airfoils ....................................................................................... 6
4.1 2D Airfoil Simulation and Parameter Analysis .............................................................. 8
4.2 Meshing Parameters and Setup .................................................................................... 8
4.3 Exemplary Comparison of Simulated Airfoils to Literature ............................................10
5 Blade Design Parameters ..................................................................................................16
5.1 Angle of Attack and Twist Angle................................................................................16
5.2 Chord Length ...........................................................................................................17
5.3 Stagger Line.............................................................................................................18
6 Creating the 3D Wind Turbine Geometry and Environment ..................................................19
7 Meshing of the 3D Wind Turbine Geometry and Environment ..............................................23
8 Simulation of 3D wind Turbine Geometry and Environment .................................................26
9 Post-Processing and Results ..............................................................................................28
10 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................35
11 References ......................................................................................................................36

III List of Tables

Table 1 Blade Design Parameters..............................................................................................16
Table 2 Calculation of the Blade Twist ......................................................................................16
II List of Figures
Fig. 1 Airfoil geometry tail correction ........................................................................................ 7
Fig. 2 Airfoil geometry after tail correction ................................................................................. 7
Fig. 3 Part mesh setup .............................................................................................................. 8
Fig. 4 Global mesh setup and compute mesh ............................................................................... 9
Fig. 5 Negative pressure coefficient curve on the airfoil DU97-W-300 surface, left from Literature and
right calculated in simulation....................................................................................................10
Fig. 6 Pressure distribution curve on the airfoil DU-97-W300 surface ...........................................10
Fig. 7 Pressure Contour around airfoil DU-97-W300 on xy-plane .................................................11
Fig. 8 Velocity Contour around airfoil DU-97-W300 on xy-plane .................................................11
Fig. 9 Velocity stream flow around airfoil DU-97-W300 .............................................................12
Fig. 10 Negative pressure coefficient curve on the airfoil DU91-W2-250 surface, left from Literature
and right calculated in simulation..............................................................................................12
Fig. 11 Pressure distribution curve on the airfoil DU-91-W2-250 surface.......................................13
Fig. 12 Pressure Contour around airfoil DU-91-W2-250 on xy-plane ............................................13
Fig. 13 Velocity Contour around airfoil DU-91-W2-250 on xy-plane ............................................14
Fig. 14 Velocity stream flow around airfoil DU-91-W2-250 .........................................................14
Fig. 15 Lift vs AoA graphs from literature(left) simulation(right) for NACA64-618 airfoil ..............15
Fig. 16 Chord length distribution as per paper [2] .......................................................................17
Fig. 17 Chord length distribution ..............................................................................................17
Fig. 18 Torque distribution over the z-axis .................................................................................18
Fig. 19 Tower properties ..........................................................................................................19
Fig. 20 Turbine geometry.........................................................................................................19
Fig. 21 Wind turbine side view .................................................................................................20
Fig. 22 Wind turbine isometric view .........................................................................................20
Fig. 23 Wind turbine front view ................................................................................................20
Fig. 24 Blade radius and chord length comparison as per paper [2] ...............................................21
Fig. 25 Blade construction from airfoils .....................................................................................21
Fig. 26 Blade tip closure different approaches ............................................................................22
Fig. 27 Meshing of the blades ...................................................................................................23
Fig. 28 Meshing of the blade, irregularities shown ......................................................................23
Fig. 29 Part mesh setup for Airfoil body domain .........................................................................24
Fig. 30 Global mesh setup for airfoil body domain ......................................................................24
Fig. 31 Part mesh setup for surrounding environment ..................................................................25
Fig. 32 Global mesh setup for surrounding environment ..............................................................25
Fig. 33 Solver run - Heat Transfer .............................................................................................26
Fig. 34 Solver run - Momentum and Mass .................................................................................26
Fig. 35 solver run - Turbulence (KO) ........................................................................................27
Fig. 36 Solver run - Wall and Boundary Scale ............................................................................27
Fig. 37 Negative Pressure Distribution curve at section of airfoil DU97-W300 on 3D Rotor Blade ...28
Fig. 38 Pressure Distribution curve at section of airfoil DU97-W300 on 3D Rotor Blade .................29
Fig. 39 Pressure Contour around DU97-W300 in 3D rotor blade...................................................29
Fig. 40 Velocity in the 2D XY plane on the airfoil section DU97-W-300 of the rotor blade..............30
Fig. 41 Radial velocity on the airfoil section DU97-W-300 of the rotor blade .................................30
Fig. 42 Negative Pressure Distribution curve at section of airfoil DU91-W2-250 on 3D Rotor Blade 31
Fig. 43 Pressure Distribution at the airfoil section DU91-W2-250 on 3D rotor blade .......................31
Fig. 44 Pressure Contour around DU91-W2-250 in 3D rotor blade................................................32
Fig. 45 Velocity in the 2D XY plane on the airfoil section DU91-W2-250 of the rotor blade ............32
Fig. 46 Radial velocity on the airfoil section DU91-W2-250 of the rotor blade ...............................33
Fig. 47 Velocity vector plot on the complete wind turbine rotor blade ...........................................33
Fig. 48 Velocity contour plot on the surface of the rotor blade ......................................................34
Fig. 49 Pressure contour plot on the surface of the rotor blade ......................................................34
1 Summary
This study project recreates a 6 MW wind turbine devised by the DOWEC group and simulates its
operation under similar conditions. To be able to do this the airfoils used for the wind turbine are
compared to values found in literature. The literature proves the results found in this report.
The blade is constructed using the simulations of the airfoils at different angle of attacks ranging from
2 to 15 degrees. The torque about the z-axis at different locations along the x-axis is computed to
determine the best stagger point for each individual airfoil. The Torque at the aerodynamic centre and
geometric centre are also computed. As well as the lift and drag forces and their respective
coefficients. A comparison of the lift and drag forces as well as their coefficients for individual airfoils
in the range of angle of attacks is devised and the polar diagram is plotted for each airfoil.
This provides the necessary information needed for the twist angle of the blade and allows its
construction. The design is orientated at the DOWEC groups design and proved to show a similar
energy yield. The result calculated from the simulation has a value of 5.89 MW and thus deviates from
the 6 MW by about 1,75 %.
2 Introduction
The DOWEC i.e., Dutch Offshore Wind Energy Converter project was initiated in 1999 until 2003 by
TU Delft and picked up by international researchers and universities. The project data and designs are
openly available except for the CAD-geometries. Therefore, the geometry generation is the focus of
this investigation with the blade design being the major contributor. The goal is to recreate the results
on the data given as accurate as possible thereby laying a foundation for future study projects to allow
improvement on the design or investigations into the aerodynamic behaviour of a wind turbine.

The wind turbine (WT) that is investigated is based on the paper “DOWEC 6 MW PRE-DESIGN” by
H.J.Z. Kooilmann et al. The paper gives data on geometry of the blades as well as the tower, nacelle
and the boundary conditions used for their initial analysis. The WT described in the paper is designed
for offshore use with a power generation of 6 MW of nominal power, the rotor diameter is 129 m and
the hub has a height of 91.4 m above mean sea level.
The blade is constructed of six different airfoil types consisting of five airfoils constructed by the TU
Delft denoted with the letters “DU” and one being an airfoil constructed by the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics denoted NACA. These airfoils are commonly used by major WT
manufacturers.

3 Goal and Achievements

The goal of the study project is to recreate the findings and results originally found by the DOWEC
project undertaken by TU Delft. And form a basis for future study groups to deepen their insights on
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in respect to wind turbines. To achieve this, the six different
airfoils will need to be investigated in a 2D environment, to allow conclusions on their behaviour in a
flow field.

Since the airfoils are commonly used and investigated some literature is available, that will allow to
evaluate the findings of the study project. If the properties found concur with the properties from the
literature they are fit to be used in the blade design. With the airfoil properties being in check with the
literature and a derived blade design, a basis is met, on which a simulation can be conducted. The
results from the simulation can be compared to the power output of the DOWEC project original
report.

4 Redesign and Drawing of Airfoils

The rotor blade is made up of a composite design consisting of a total of six airfoil shapes which are
arranged in a consecutive order to construct a blade capable of producing a well distributed amount of
lift throughout the whole blade. The airfoils used, include five airfoils from Delft University which
can be distinguished by their naming as follows. DU stands for the University Delft followed by the
last two digits of the year in which the airfoil was designed, W marks the airfoil as being denoted to
wind energy instead of for example for aviation and a three-digit number to show ten times the
maximum thickness in percent of the chord. If there should be more than one blade design this will be
marked by a number following the W directly. [1] Therefore the DU91-W2-250 is the second blade
from the Delft university, designed in the year 1991 with a maximum thickness of 25 % of the chord.
For this project the following DU-airfoils were used: DU99-W-405, DU99-W-350, DU97-W-300,
DU91-W2-250, DU93-W-210 although the airfoils DU99-W-405 and -350 were further adjusted as
the paper “DOWEC 6 MW PRE-DESIGN” [2] points out. Further one airfoil from the “National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics” (NACA) is used, the NA64. These airfoils are also commonly
used by some of the most common WT manufacturers and the designs are usually openly available.

As mentioned above the designs for the airfoils are openly available usually as a dot cloud geometry.
The available dot geometries show a gap at the trailing edge which needs to be closed to improve the
mesh generated from the CFD-Software.
Fig. 1 Airfoil geometry tail correction

To close the gap the upper and the lower half of the airfoils are rotated along the z-axis to fit the
trailing edge tip of the upper and lower half to a zero curve on the xz-plane, although this will elongate
the airfoil and slightly change the geometry this change must be done. Even though the length
difference is marginal and in the region of 1*E-05 m therefore it can be neglected.

Fig. 2 Airfoil geometry after tail correction

Although it is desired to recreate the DOWEC project results as precise as possible, there had to be
further changes to the design of the mentioned airfoils. Usually the chord line of an airfoil is
cambered, to simplify the design approach a straight chord line was chosen.

While using multiple airfoils, two important design parameters should be considered. Firstly, the
stagger point along the chord length of the airfoil at which they are supposed to be rotated, based on
the magnitude of torque generated and secondly the ideal angle of attack for each of those individual
airfoils to generate the maximum lift possible.

To find out these values we had to subject each airfoil into individual 2D analysis over a range of
angle of attacks from 4° to 15°. To get an insight of how the airfoil reacts, a certain area is needed on
which the physical properties can act. An airfoil width of 0.2 m is chosen.
4.1 2D Airfoil Simulation and Parameter Analysis
A 2D analysis of an airfoil is ideal to explain the behaviour with respect to certain input parameters
such as the angle of attack, mainly to study how the pressure and velocity distribution occurs on the
surface of the airfoil and around it and how the wind flows around the airfoil, starting from the point
of contact at the leading edge to the point of separation at the trailing edge forming a separation
bubble. To analyse the airfoils, they were first built up from the PNTS file consisting of the coordinate
points. Later, curves and finally surfaces were added. Then they were merged into a 2D plane field.
The inner region of the 2D plane field which houses the airfoil blade was made into a separate region
to apply higher levels of mesh refinement for better analysis.

4.2 Meshing Parameters and Setup

The following figures show the adjustments to the mesh setup that need to be made to recreate the
meshes used for the simulation of the 2D airfoils.

Fig. 3 Part mesh setup

Fig. 4 Global mesh setup and compute mesh
4.3 Exemplary Comparison of Simulated Airfoils to Literature
The polar diagram gives the complete aerodynamic information of how the airfoil behaves with
increasing angle of attacks and the point at which it stops generating lift force and goes into stall. To
determine the usability of the created airfoils, the simulated data is compared to measurements from
literature.

Fig. 5 Negative pressure coefficient curve on the airfoil DU97-W-300 surface, left from Literature and right calculated in
simulation

As the diagrams in figure 5 suggests, the negative pressure coefficient determined in the paper by
W.A. Timmer and R.P.J.O.M van Rooij [1] shows a similar behaviour to the simulated DU97-W-300
airfoil. For both curves the lowest point is at a Cp of 1.0 and its highest point at about 2. Although the
curve of the paper goes a bit higher to a value of 2.5.

The small differences in the curve may be connected to the slight change in the tail gap geometry that
was mentioned before as well as to different conditions chosen for wind speed and air density. The
measurements from the paper [1] were recorded in a wind tunnel with simulated wind speeds of 25
m/s whereas this simulation was done at a wind speed of 12.1 m/s. Furthermore, the angle of attack
(AoA) is slightly higher which may also alter the shape of the curve.

Fig. 6 Pressure distribution curve on the airfoil DU-97-W300 surface

Fig. 7 Pressure Contour around airfoil DU-97-W300 on xy-plane

Fig. 8 Velocity Contour around airfoil DU-97-W300 on xy-plane

Fig. 9 Velocity stream flow around airfoil DU-97-W300

As a second example to validate the simulated data the airfoil DU91-W2-250 is considered.

Fig. 10 Negative pressure coefficient curve on the airfoil DU91-W2-250 surface, left from Literature and right calculated in
simulation

Figure 10 shows the minus Cp-curve from the paper [1] against the simulated minus Cp-curve of the
DU91-W2-250. As well as for the DU97-W-300 these curves look similar and show similar values.
Again, the paper [1] uses a higher AoA and higher wind speeds.
Fig. 11 Pressure distribution curve on the airfoil DU-91-W2-250 surface

Fig. 12 Pressure Contour around airfoil DU-91-W2-250 on xy-plane

Fig. 13 Velocity Contour around airfoil DU-91-W2-250 on xy-plane

Fig. 14 Velocity stream flow around airfoil DU-91-W2-250

Fig. 15 Lift vs AoA graphs from literature(left) simulation(right) for NACA64-618 airfoil

Not only does the analysis of the DU-Airfoils concur with the literature also the NACA-Airfoils
behaviour resembles that described in the literature as can be seen by comparing the lift coefficient vs
angle of attack graphs above.

To conclude the analysis, it can be said that the literature and the simulated airfoils are in check and
thus the airfoils can be used with the changes to the geometry without changing the expected results
significantly. Also, it is now possible to determine concurring AoA to be used for designing the blade
and thus the resulting twist angle which needs to be implemented in the blade to guarantee a proper
distribution of power generating forces throughout the blade.
5 Blade Design Parameters
Table 1 shows the angle of attack, the radius, the lift coefficient, the chord length and the twist angle,
which were taken for the blade design. The following sub-chapters explains how these values were
determined.
AoA [°] Radius [m] CL [-] Chord Length [m] Twist Angle Φ [°]
Cylinder 1 - 1,80 - 3,5000 -
Cylinder 1 - 2,80 - 3,5000 -
Cylinder 1 - 3,80 - 3,6140 -
Cylinder 2 - 5,98 - 3,8634 -
Cylinder 2 - 8,80 - 4,1860 -
DU4050 10,0 10,15 0,586 4,3227 17,9038
DU4050 10,0 13,80 0,586 4,6920 11,2820
DU35 9,0 15,00 0,762 4,6618 10,7143
DU35 9,0 17,50 0,762 4,5990 8,0749
DU97-W-300 7,0 20,49 0,798 4,4464 7,6988
DU97-W-300 7,0 24,30 0,798 4,2520 5,4731
3DU91-W-2250 6,0 26,79 0,940 4,0996 5,3449
3DU91-W-2250 6,0 31,80 0,940 3,7930 3,5935
DU93-W-210 6,0 34,22 1,038 3,6479 2,9266
DU93W210 6,0 41,80 1,038 3,1930 1,3272
NACA 64-618 6,0 42,47 1,061 3,1529 1,2130
NACA 64-618 6,0 51,80 1,061 2,5930 -0,0760
NACA 64-618 6,0 56,80 1,061 2,2930 -0,5943
NACA 64-618 6,0 59,80 1,061 2,0230 -0,8640
NACA 64-618 6,0 64,50 1,061 0,0000 -1,2364
Table 1 Blade Design Parameters

5.1 Angle of Attack and Twist Angle

Initially during the first approach of blade design the AoA of the airfoils which had the highest lift
coefficients as per the reports generated in the 2D analysis were chosen by default presuming that, if
we take the AoA based on the highest lift coefficient for each airfoil we get the best design, but when
this was constructed the blade displayed lots of inconsistencies as if the blade was twisted multiple
times to different amounts as the twist angle calculated decreased and increased repeatedly from the
hub to the tip of the blade. In the second approach the suitable AoA with considerably high lift
coefficient was considered based on how the twist angles panned out along the blade length. In the
table below the first two columns shows the initial AoA and twist angle and the third and fourth
column shows the AoA and twist angle finally considered for the blade design.
Airfoil AoA α [°] Blade Twist Φ [°] AoA used α [°] Blade Twist used Φ [°]
DU4050 11 16,9038 10 17,9038
DU4050 11 10,2820 10 11,2820
DU35 7 12,7143 9 10,7143
DU35 7 10,0749 9 8,0749
DU97-W-300 6 8,6988 7 7,6988
DU97-W-300 6 6,4731 7 5,4731
DU91-W2-250 5 6,3449 6 5,3449
DU91-W2-250 5 4,5935 6 3,5935
DU93-W-210 4 4,9266 6 2,9266
DU93-W-210 4 3,3272 6 1,3272
NACA 64-618 4 3,2130 6 1,2130
NACA 64-618 4 1,9240 6 -0,0760

Intermediates
Table 2 Calculation of the Blade Twist

The intermediates were given in the paper [2] as the first time an airfoil was integrated into the blade
profile. Since these are points where the previous and the new airfoil are indistinguishable they were
not incorporated into the design. But they help showing the inconsistency of the blade twist that was
tried to be prevented.
 2∗𝑅
The twist angle was calculated by the following formula: 𝛷 = 𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛( )− 𝛼
3∗𝑟∗𝜆

With Φ symbolizing the blade twist, R, the blade radius equal to 64,5m and r the respective section
radius, λ being the tip speed ratio equal to 8 that was chosen as per the DOWEC 6MW paper [2] and α
being the AoA determined from the 2D-airfoil analysis for each airfoil section.

5.2 Chord Length

The following graph taken from the paper [2] shows the distribution of the chord length over the
radius.

Fig. 16 Chord length distribution as per paper [2]

Except for the chord length of the intermediate, the values for the radii and the chord lengths displayed
in the table 1 were also given by the paper [2] and are located on this curve. To simplify the design, it
was assumed, that there is a linear behaviour between each of the points shown in the table 1. Due to
linear interpolation, the chord lengths of the intermediates were determined. The following chart
shows the resulting distribution.

Fig. 17 Chord length distribution

Since the design of the blade differs from the design described in the paper [2], the aerodynamic
behaviour also differs. That must be considered when comparing results with each other.
5.3 Stagger Line
The location of a stagger line should be at the point of the z-axis of an airfoil, where the torque is zero.
That minimizes the stress load on the blade. Since the location differs for each airfoil, the stagger line
must be chosen in a way to minimize the overall stress. As per paper [2], this location is approximately
around the point 0,375 of the airfoils length.

The following graph shows the torque distribution over the location of the z-axis for each specific
airfoil at the selected angle of attack. The data was taken from the result files.

Fig. 18 Torque distribution over the z-axis

The torque for each airfoil drops below zero before the location of 0,375, which is marked grey. As
per that, the lowest overall torque should be even before 0,375. But since the deviation to 0,375 is low
and to achieve a comparable result, the location of the stagger line was chosen to be at 0,375 as well.
6 Creating the 3D Wind Turbine Geometry and Environment
To recreate the results of the DOWEC Paper [2] it is necessary to recreate the blade as precise as
possible. To ensure this, certain parameters needed to be taken from the Paper itself. These were
connected to the blade geometry. Especially for the geometry concerning the blade, the tower as well
as the nacelle. For the hub and winglets no additional information were provided in the paper.
Therefore, the hub and the winglets should have a simple design to minimize the workload on these
geometries. The Basis for the tower geometry was given in the DOWEC paper [2] by a table, see
figure 19.

Fig. 19 Tower properties

Fig. 20 Turbine geometry

Similar details were provided for the nacelle geometry. Unfortunately, the provided information was
not precise enough to get the exact geometry. Therefore, assumptions and comparisons to similar sized
wind turbines allowed to create a cylindrical form for the Nacelle as per the specifications, although
the given aerodynamic drag leads to the suggestion that the nacelle is equipped with a flat surface. The
lack in precision of the turbine geometry becomes especially obvious in the distance of the tower and
the hub. The design shown in the figure 20 shows that the tower is very close to the nacelle and that
the tail is unusually long. This is based on the geometry parameters that define a horizontal distance of
5 m from the rotor centre with respect to the tower centre. Whereas the nacelle was created to fit the
side area stated in the parameters. Further the nacelle and the rotor are supposed to have a backwards
tilt to prevent the blades from being pressed against the tower during operation which would further
increase the conceived distance between tower and nacelle. This was also not taken into consideration
during simulation to not overcomplicate the design. This should not have a significant effect on the
performance of the WT though since these are mainly measures to accommodate movement in the
parts due to mechanical stresses.
Fig. 21 Wind turbine side view

Fig. 22 Wind turbine isometric view

Fig. 23 Wind turbine front view

Since both these geometries have little effect on the power generation of the wind turbine the DOWEC
paper paid more attention on the blade design.

Fig. 24 Blade radius and chord length comparison as per paper [2]

Figure 24 shows the table that was used as a basis for the table 1, blade generation as described in the
previous chapter “Blade Design Parameters”. Based on these tables the airfoils were distributed along
the z-axis and enlarged or shrunk to fit the provided chord length as shown in figure 25.

Fig. 25 Blade construction from airfoils

The twist angles Φ calculated in the previous section are applied to each airfoil respective to their
position on the radius of the blade. The airfoils are made up of five sections that form the leading
edge, the upper and lower section and the upper and lower trailing edge. Each section is connected to
its correspondents at the adjacent airfoils to form the surfaces that are needed for the mesh generation.
During this phase, it is crucial to think about the rotational direction of the WT. Since it should operate
as a "Danish" design WT, a clockwise rotation is necessary. Thus, we need the pressure side of the
airfoil to face the inlet and the suction side facing the outlet.

To avoid complications at the blade edges, small winglets or rounded tips were designed. Sharp edges
may affect the generated mesh and can create irregularities at these surfaces. For the tips, different
approaches were devised to close the last NACA-64-618 airfoil.
90° Tip Round Tip with additional frames

Round Tip with 50% Radius and additional frame Round Tip with 50% Radius and additional frames
Fig. 26 Blade tip closure different approaches

The general idea in generating a tip was to either round the tip of the blade or add a winglet as
commonly done for WT rotor blades. Creating winglets would have meant further work in geometry
and meshing. To avoid this, the round tip solution was chosen. To create a round tip the last airfoil of
the blade is used as a basis. The approaches shown in figure 26 are created by rotating the upper half
of the NACA-64-618 by 90 degrees. The 90° tip shows a very sharp and pointy edge, which might
lead to problems in meshing. To get a rounded tip an additional perpendicular frame is introduced in
the centre of the curve. This led to unsatisfactory surface in the trailing edge part of the tip, since the
surfaces generated were rather steep. To round the tip further, additional frames were introduced that
are located at the sections forming the leading edge, top and trailing edge of the airfoil. The tip that
was selected out of the displayed designs is the rounded tip with 50% radius and additional frame.
This design shows the smoothest surfaces and no sharp edges. Which is due to the additional frames,
also it is less bulging than the simple rounded tip with additional frames which bulged over the
NACA-64-618 airfoil perimeter that was used as a base structure. This design probably has the least
negative effect on the simulation although this would have to be further investigated.

The surrounding environment was chosen in a simple rectangular shape with a height and width of
five times the length of the blade and about 30 times in length whereas the blade is located at roughly
ten times the length after the inlet. This should prevent interdependencies between the different
surfaces and should allow for a good numerical approach on the flow field.
7 Meshing of the 3D Wind Turbine Geometry and Environment
Meshing of the blades was particularly difficult due to the trailing edge which has surfaces that lie
very close together. These make it difficult for the meshing software to generate a proper mesh. To
reduce the total number of nodes for parts that are less complicated the blade was divided into leading
and trailing edge to allow for different mesh parameters to be set for each part. As can be seen in
picture 27 by the different shades of grey. Unfortunately, the trailing edge section of the DU4050 was
so close together that even the finer mesh properties did not result in an even distribution of mesh
elements.

Fig. 27 Meshing of the blades

Fig. 28 Meshing of the blade, irregularities shown

Fig. 29 Part mesh setup for Airfoil body domain

Fig. 30 Global mesh setup for airfoil body domain

The figures 29 and 30 show the meshing parameters for the 3D blade geometry resulting in a total
number of nodes for the blades and the circumference of roughly 3.5 million nodes which should be
sufficient to get a proper result during main processing.
Fig. 31 Part mesh setup for surrounding environment

Fig. 32 Global mesh setup for surrounding environment

The figures 31 and 32 show the mesh parameters for the surrounding geometry which will result in
about 2.4 million nodes. Bringing the total node count of surrounding and blades to 6 million nodes.
8 Simulation of 3D wind Turbine Geometry and Environment
To simulate the 3D-Wind turbine with the specified physical parameters the generated mesh files
mentioned in the previous chapter are brought into the workspace of Ansys CFX-Pre. The mesh file of
the airfoil body and surrounding environment is named under respective domains and the respective
domain boundaries are specified. Certain boundary properties like inlet velocity, temperature,
pressures and type of flow in certain regions are specified. The solver input file is defined to be run in
the main solver of Ansys, by setting the number of iterations to be calculated. The Ansys main solver
run generated the following graphs during the simulation run.

Fig. 33 Solver run - Heat Transfer

Fig. 34 Solver run - Momentum and Mass

Fig. 35 solver run - Turbulence (KO)

Fig. 36 Solver run - Wall and Boundary Scale

9 Post-Processing and Results
The result of the main solver run calculations cannot be displayed that easily and must undergo some
post-processing. Hence the result files are brought into the workspace of Ansys CFX-Post. Here
multiple 2D XY section planes are created and pressure and velocity contours are defined on them,
this illustrates the velocity and pressure over different lengths of the rotor blade. Formulas are defined
so that the power generated can be calculated.

A similar comparison analysis which was done on the 2D airfoils was repeated at the same airfoil on
the 3D rotor blade. The airfoils under investigation are DU97W-300 and DU91-W2-250. The pressure
distribution – positive and negative, contours pressure and velocity around are shown further in this
chapter.

Comparing the negative pressure distribution curve of DU97-W300 airfoil on a 3D rotor blade and just
2D airfoil as discussed earlier in chapter 4.3. The negative pressure coefficient in case of the 3D rotor
blade has its max and min extreme points stretched a bit over that of the 2D airfoil. Also, it can be
noted that the curve of the 3D rotor blade is very smooth as compared to the 2D airfoil, this is because
the 3D rotor blade is built with different airfoils and these other airfoil sections tend to influence the
behaviours of each other to a certain extent.

Fig. 37 Negative Pressure Distribution curve at section of airfoil DU97-W300 on 3D Rotor Blade
Similarly, in the positive pressure distribution, the max and min extremes of the 3D rotor blade at
airfoil section DU97-W300 are reduced as compared to 2D airfoil and the curve is once again very
smooth.

Fig. 38 Pressure Distribution curve at section of airfoil DU97-W300 on 3D Rotor Blade

The pressure contour plot on an xy plane at airfoil section DU97-W300 on the 3D rotor blade as
shown in figure 39 shows clearly how the lift generating low pressure points are concentrated on the
upper surface of the airfoil starting at the nose on the leading edge.

Fig. 39 Pressure Contour around DU97-W300 in 3D rotor blade

The Velocity Contour plots in figures 40 and 41 show the velocity around the rotor blade at airfoil
section DU97-W300 on xy plane and the radial velocity directed along the radius of the rotor blade.
The velocity concentrates at the leading edge on the XY plane and the separation bubble at the tail is
relatively distinct as in the 2D analysis in chapter 4.3.

Fig. 40 Velocity in the 2D XY plane on the airfoil section DU97-W-300 of the rotor blade

Fig. 41 Radial velocity on the airfoil section DU97-W-300 of the rotor blade
Similarly comparing the negative pressure distribution curve of DU91-W2-250 airfoil on a 3D rotor
blade and just 2D airfoil as discussed earlier in chapter 4.3. The negative pressure coefficient in case
of the 3D rotor blade has its maximum and minimum extremal points at the same level as the 2D
airfoil. Again, the differnce in smoothness is apparent this is for the same reasons mentioned for the
DU97-W300.

Fig. 42 Negative Pressure Distribution curve at section of airfoil DU91-W2-250 on 3D Rotor Blade

Similarly, in the positive pressure distribution, the max and min extremes of the 3D rotor blade at
airfoil section DU91-W2-250 are reduced as compared to 2D airfoil and the curve is once again very
smooth.

Fig. 43 Pressure Distribution at the airfoil section DU91-W2-250 on 3D rotor blade

The Pressure Contour plot on the XY plane at airfoil section DU91-W2-250 on the 3D rotor blade as
shown in figure 44 clearly shows how the lift generating low pressure points are concentrated on the
upper surface of the airfoil starting from the nose on the leading edge. It can be noted that the lowest
pressure here is lower than the lowest pressure at airfoil section DU91-W2-250 at -1714.925 [Pa].

Fig. 44 Pressure Contour around DU91-W2-250 in 3D rotor blade

The Velocity Contour plots in figures 45 and 46 show the velocity around the rotor blade at airfoil
section DU91-W2-250 on the XY plane and the radial velocity directed along the radius of the rotor
blade. The velocity concentrates at the leading edge on the XY plane and the separation bubble at the
tail is relatively distinct as in the 2D analysis in chapter 4.3.

Fig. 45 Velocity in the 2D XY plane on the airfoil section DU91-W2-250 of the rotor blade
Fig. 46 Radial velocity on the airfoil section DU91-W2-250 of the rotor blade

Fig. 47 Velocity vector plot on the complete wind turbine rotor blade
Fig. 48 Velocity contour plot on the surface of the rotor blade

Fig. 49 Pressure contour plot on the surface of the rotor blade

10 Conclusion
As the investigation into the 2D-analysis of the seperate airfoils showed. A high consensus between
the simulated data and the literature was found. This allowed to use the airfoils that had been created
to be used in the blade geometry needed to simulate the WT.

This project work proved that the WT described in the paper “DOWEC 6 MW PRE-DESIGN” by
H.J.Z. Kooilmann et al.can be reverse engineered. Although not all the required specifications for all
WT geometries were given and some compromises had to be done. As mentioned these changes
mainly concerned the chord length distribution and a minor adjustment of the airfoils shapes. These
may have led to minor deviations in the shape of the recreated blade to the one described in the paper.

The calculated power output of the recreated wind turbine was calculated as 5.8966 MW. Compared to
the nominal power output of 6 MW, which were declared by the paper, the difference is 0.1034 MW,
which equates to a deviation of 1.7536 %. A small deviation was expected, especially because of the
already mentioned changes, which have been executed.

Nevertheless, the deviation of less than 2 % shows, that the power output indicated in the paper agrees
with the calculations of this project work and hence the work done in this project is accurate and
scientifically resilient. Therefore, it can serve as a foundation for future study projects, to allow
improvement on the design or other investigations into the aerodynamic behaviour of a wind turbine
rotor blade.

Future investigations or rather studies could for example include changing the twist angle of the blade
or changing the position of the blade in accordance to the wind. Meaning that parameter studies could
be conducted to show how the WT behaves in different situations in the sense of flow conditions.
Besides doing parameter studies on the generated model itself, a model WT of this magnitude would
allow to simulate the wake behind the WT and its lieftime and the effects as well as the simulation of a
wind parks.
11 References
[1] W.A. Timmer, R.P.J.O.M van Rooij; Delft University Wind Energy Research Institute, Faculty of
Civil Engineering and Geosciences; 2003

[2] H.J.Z. Kooilmann, C.Lindenburg, D.Winkelaar, E.L. van der Hooft; DOWEC 6 MW PRE-
DESIGN, Aero-elastic modelling of the DOWEC 6 MW pre-design in PHATAS; 09.2003;
https://www.ecn.nl/fileadmin/ecn/units/wind/docs/dowec/10046_009.pdf , 04.05.2017

[3] Ira H. Abbott, A. E. von Doenhoff; Theory of Wing Sections: Including a Summary of Airfoil
Data; Dover Publicatios, Inc.; New York; 1959