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Numerical investigations on the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine: Downwind versus upwind configuration

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Abstract

Although the upwind configuration is more popular in the field of wind energy, the downwind one is a promising type for the offshore wind energy due to its special advantages. Different configurations have different aerodynamic performance and it is important to predict the performance of both downwind and upwind configurations accurately for designing and developing more reliable wind turbines. In this paper, a numerical investigation on the aerodynamic performance of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) phase VI wind turbine in downwind and upwind configurations is presented. The open source toolbox OpenFOAM coupled with arbitrary mesh interface (AMI) method is applied to tackle rotating problems of wind turbines. Two 3D numerical models of NREL phase VI wind turbine with downwind and upwind configurations under four typical working conditions of incoming wind velocities are set up for the study of different unsteady characteristics of the downwind and upwind configurations, respectively. Numerical results of wake vortex structure, time histories of thrust, pressure distribution on the blade and limiting streamlines which can be used to identify points of separation in a 3D flow are presented. It can be concluded that thrust reduction due to blade-tower interaction is small for upwind wind turbines but relatively large for downwind wind turbines and attention should be paid to the vibration at a certain frequency induced by the cyclic reduction for both configurations. The results and conclusions are helpful to analyze the different aerodynamic performance of wind turbines between downwind and upwind configurations, providing useful references for practical design of wind turbine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Hu Zhou & Decheng Wan

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Ship and Deep-Sea Exploration, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Decheng Wan

  3. Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou, 310014, China

    Hu Zhou

Authors
  1. Hu Zhou
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  2. Decheng Wan
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Correspondence to Decheng Wan.

Additional information

Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51379125, 51411130131, 11432009), the National Key Basic Research Development Plan (973 Plan) Project of China (Grant No. 2013CB036103), High Technology of Marine Research Project of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, ABS(China), and the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning (Grant No. 2013022).

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Zhou, H., Wan, D. Numerical investigations on the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine: Downwind versus upwind configuration. J. Marine. Sci. Appl. 14, 61–68 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11804-015-1295-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11804-015-1295-9

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