Milad Mousavi

Bio: Milad Mousavi is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Gurney flap & Airfoil. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 3 citations.

Dynamic stall of an airfoil with different mounting angle of gurney flap

Abstract: One of the best methods to improve wind turbine aerodynamic performance is modification of the blade’s airfoil. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of gurney flap geometry and its oscillation parameters on the pitching NACA0012 airfoil.,This numerical solution has been carried out for different cases of gurney flap mounting angles, heights, reduced frequencies and oscillation amplitudes, then the results were compared to each other. The finite volume method was used for the discretization of the governing equations, and the PISO algorithm was used to solve the equations. Also, the “SST” was adopted as the turbulence model in the simulation.,In this paper, the different parameters of gurney flap were investigated. The results showed that the best range of gurney flap height are between 1 and 3.2% of chord and the best ratio of lifting to drag coefficient is achieved in gurney flap with an angle of 90° relative to the chord direction. The dynamic stall angle of the airfoil with gurney flap decreases were compared to without gurney flap. Earlier LEV formation can be one of the main reasons for decreasing the dynamic stall angle of the airfoil with gurney flap. Increasing the reduced frequency and oscillation amplitude causes rising of maximum lift coefficient and consequently lift curve slope. Moreover, gurney flap with mounting angle has a lower hinge moment than the gurney flap without mounting angle but with the same vertical axis length. So, there is more complexity in structural design concerning the gurney flap without mounting angle.,Improving aerodynamic efficiency of airfoils is vital for obtaining more output power in VAWTs. Gurney flaps are one of the best mechanisms to increase the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil and increases the efficiency of VAWTs.,Investigating the hinge moment on the connection point of the airfoil, gurney flap and try to compare the gurney flap with and without angle.

Power performance enhancement of vertical axis wind turbines by a novel gurney flap design

Abstract: Purpose Nowadays flaps and winglets are one of the main mechanisms to increase airfoil efficiency. This study aims to investigate the power performance of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) that are equipped with diverse gurney flaps. This study could play a crucial role in the design of the VAWT in the future. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation is used. The second-order finite volume method is used for the discretization of the governing equations. Findings The results show that the gurney flap enhances the power coefficient at the low range of tip speed ratio (TSR). When an angled and standard gurney flap case has the same aerodynamic performance, an angled gurney flap case has a lower hinge moment on the junction of airfoil and gurney flap which shows the structural excellence of this case. In all gurney flap cases, the power coefficient increases by an average of 20% at the TSR range of 0.6 to 1.8. The gurney flap cases do not perform well at the high TSR range and the results show a lower amount of power coefficient compare to the clean airfoil. Originality/value The angled gurney flap which has the structural advantage and is deployed to the pressure side of the airfoil improves the efficiency of VAWT at the low and medium range of TSR. This study recommends using a controllable gurney flap which could be deployed at a certain amount of TSR.

Coriolis effect on dynamic stall in a vertical axis wind turbine

Abstract: The immersed boundary method is used to simulate the flow around a two-dimensional cross section of a rotating NACA 0018 airfoil in order to investigate the dynamic stall occurring on a vertical axis wind turbine. The influence of dynamic stall on the force is characterized as a function of tip-speed ratio and Rossby number. The influence of the Coriolis effect is isolated by comparing the rotating airfoil to one undergoing an equivalent planar motion that is composed of surging and pitching motions that produce an equivalent speed and angle-of-attack variation over the cycle. Planar motions consisting of sinusoidally varying pitch and surge are also examined. At lower tip-speed ratios, the Coriolis force leads to the capture of a vortex pair when the angle of attack of a rotating airfoil begins to decrease in the upwind half cycle. This wake-capturing phenomenon leads to a significant decrease in lift during the downstroke phase. The appearance of this feature depends subtly on the tip-speed ratio. On the one hand, it is strengthened due to the intensifying Coriolis force, but on the other hand, it is attenuated because of the comitant decrease in angle of attack. While the present results are restricted to two-dimensional flow at low Reynolds numbers, they compare favorably with experimental observations at much higher Reynolds numbers. Moreover, the wake-capturing is observed only when the combination of surging, pitching, and Coriolis force is present.

Plasma actuator effects on the flow physics of dynamic stall for a vertical axis wind turbine

Abstract: Darrieus type vertical axis wind turbines have several advantages over other wind turbines for local electricity generation in urban environments. However, the main aerodynamic challenge is the negative impacts of the dynamic stall phenomenon on the turbine performance. This study numerically scrutinizes the effects of plasma actuators on the dynamic stall control and performance improvement of a Darrieus turbine. For this sake, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a pressure-based finite volume method. The Suzen–Hoang plasma actuator model is employed to calculate the body forces attributed to the plasma actuator. First, the dynamic stall characteristics of the turbine blade with no plasma actuator are explored. Then, three plasma actuator configurations (i.e., inboard, outboard, and double-sided) are considered. According to the results of the clean blade, the aerodynamic performance mainly depends on the reverse Karman vortex formation at the onset of the down-stroke motion and counterclockwise vortex formation on the blade suction side. The results of plasma configurations indicate that the inboard and double-sided actuators enhance the turbine power output by 10%, while the outboard actuator effects are negligible. Moreover, the plasma actuator is effective only in the down-stroke motion of the blade. Results also show that the inboard and double-sided plasma actuators eliminate the reverse Karman vortex and significantly reduce the counterclockwise vortex size, increasing the lift force and connection point moment. Consequently, the inboard and double-sided plasma actuators remove the negative torque generation in azimuth angles of 135° to 180°, primarily responsible for the output power enhancement.

Design and performance evaluation of vertical axis wind turbine for wind energy harvesting at railway

Abstract: This paper aims to design an optimum vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) and assess its techno-economic performance for wind energy harvesting at high-speed railway in Malaysia.,This project adopted AutoCAD and ANSYS modeling tools to design and optimize the blade of the turbine. The site selected has a railway of 30 km with six stops. The vertical turbines are placed 1 m apart from each other considering the optimum tip speed ratio. The power produced and net present value had been analyzed to evaluate its techno-economic viability.,Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0020 blade has been carried out. For a turbine with wind speed of 50 m/s and swept area of 8 m2, the power generated is 245 kW. For eight trains that operate for 19 h/day with an interval of 30 min in nonpeak hours and 15 min in peak hours, total energy generated is 66 MWh/day. The average cost saved by the train stations is RM 16.7 mil/year with battery charging capacity of 12 h/day.,Wind energy harvesting is not commonly used in Malaysia due to its low wind speed ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 m/s. Conventional wind turbine requires a minimum cut-in wind speed of 11 m/s to overcome the inertia and starts generating power. Hence, this paper proposes an optimum design of VAWT to harvest an unconventional untapped wind sources from railway. The research finding complements the alternate energy harvesting technologies which can serve as reference for countries which experienced similar geographic constraints.

Power performance enhancement of vertical axis wind turbines by a novel gurney flap design

Abstract: Purpose Nowadays flaps and winglets are one of the main mechanisms to increase airfoil efficiency. This study aims to investigate the power performance of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) that are equipped with diverse gurney flaps. This study could play a crucial role in the design of the VAWT in the future. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation is used. The second-order finite volume method is used for the discretization of the governing equations. Findings The results show that the gurney flap enhances the power coefficient at the low range of tip speed ratio (TSR). When an angled and standard gurney flap case has the same aerodynamic performance, an angled gurney flap case has a lower hinge moment on the junction of airfoil and gurney flap which shows the structural excellence of this case. In all gurney flap cases, the power coefficient increases by an average of 20% at the TSR range of 0.6 to 1.8. The gurney flap cases do not perform well at the high TSR range and the results show a lower amount of power coefficient compare to the clean airfoil. Originality/value The angled gurney flap which has the structural advantage and is deployed to the pressure side of the airfoil improves the efficiency of VAWT at the low and medium range of TSR. This study recommends using a controllable gurney flap which could be deployed at a certain amount of TSR.