Modern wind farms comprised of horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) require significant land resources to separate each wind turbine from the adjacent turbine wakes. This aerodynamic constraint limits the amount of power that can be extracted from a given wind farm footprint. The resulting inefficiency of HAWT farms is currently compensated by using taller wind turbines to access greater wind resources at high altitudes, but this solution comes at the expense of higher engineering costs and greater visual, acoustic, radar, and environmental impacts. We investigated the use of counter-rotating vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in order to achieve higher power output per unit land area than existing wind farms consisting of HAWTs. Full-scale field tests of 10-m tall VAWTs in various counter-rotating configurations were conducted under natural wind conditions during summer 2010. Whereas modern wind farms consisting of HAWTs produce 2–3 W of power per square meter of land area, these field tests indicate that power densities an order of magnitude greater can potentially be achieved by arranging VAWTs in layouts that enable them to extract energy from adjacent wakes and from above the wind farm. Moreover, this improved performance does not require higher individual wind turbine efficiency, only closer wind turbine spacing and a sufficient vertical flux of turbulence kinetic energy from the atmospheric surface layer. The results suggest an alternative approach to wind farming that has the potential to concurrently reduce the cost, size, and environmental impacts of wind farms.

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Potential order-of-magnitude enhancement of wind farm power density via counter-rotating vertical-axis wind turbine arrays

Most numerical and experimental studies of the performance of vertical-axis wind turbines have been conducted with the rotors in steady, and thus somewhat artificial, wind conditions - with the result that turbine aerodynamics, under varying wind conditions, are still poorly understood. The Vorticity Transport Model has been used to investigate the aerodynamic performance and wake dynamics, both in steady and unsteady wind conditions, of three different vertical-axis wind turbines: one with a straight-bladed configuration, another with a curved-bladed configuration and another with a helically twisted configuration. The turbines with non-twisted blades are shown to be somewhat less efficient than the turbine with helically twisted blades when the rotors are operated at constant rotational speed in unsteady wind conditions. In steady wind conditions, the power coefficients that are produced by both the straight- and the curved-bladed turbines vary considerably within one rotor revolution because of the continuously varying angle of attack on the blades and, thus, the inherent unsteadiness in the blade aerodynamic loading. These variations are much larger, and thus far more significant, than those that are induced by the unsteadiness in the wind conditions.

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Modelling the aerodynamics of vertical-axis wind turbines in unsteady wind conditions

Canonical problems involving single, pairs, and arrays of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are investigated numerically with the objective of understanding the underlying flow structures and their implications on energy production. Experimental studies by Dabiri (J Renew Sustain Energy 3, 2011) suggest that VAWTs demand less stringent spacing requirements than their horizontal axis counterparts and additional benefits may be obtained by optimizing the placement and rotational direction of VAWTs. The flowfield of pairs of co-/counter-rotating VAWTs shows some similarities with pairs of cylinders in terms of wake structure and vortex shedding. When multiple VAWTs are placed in a column, the extent of the wake is seen to spread further downstream, irrespective of the direction of rotation of individual turbines. However, the aerodynamic interference between turbines gives rise to regions of excess momentum between the turbines which lead to significant power augmentations. Studies of VAWTs arranged in multiple columns show that the downstream columns can actually be more efficient than the leading column, a proposition that could lead to radical improvements in wind farm productivity.

Computational analysis of vertical axis wind turbine arrays

CFD Investigation on the Aerodynamic Interferences between Medium-solidity Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

https://cris.vub.be/ws/files/67468910/vergaerde2020RE.pdf

Experimental validation of the power enhancement of a pair of vertical-axis wind turbines

The effect of aerodynamic interference on the performance of two curved bladed Darrieus-type vertical axis wind turbines has been calculated using a vortex/lifting line aerodynamic model. The turbines have a tower-to-tower separation distance of 1.5 turbine diameters, with the line of turbine centers varying with respect to the ambient wind direction. The effects of freestream turbulence were neglected. For the cases examined, the calculations showed that the downwind turbine power decrement (1) was significant only when the line of turbine centers was coincident with the ambient wind direction, (2) increased with increasing tipspeed ratio, and (3) is due more to induced flow angularities downstream than to speed deficits near the downstream turbine.

Aerodynamic interference between two Darrieus wind turbines

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Aerodynamic Interference Between Two Darrieus Wind Turbines

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H.R. Spahr

Papers

Aerodynamic interference between two Darrieus wind turbines

Aerodynamic Interference Between Two Darrieus Wind Turbines

Aerodynamic interference between two Darrieus wind turbines