Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Aerodynamic Characteristics in a Small-Scale Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract

In various parts of Indonesia, particularly in coastal areas, wind energy can be used as a source of electricity, using wind turbines, whose energy depends on wind speed. Basically, the number of blades in a wind turbine affects the overall turbine performance. This research analyzes the influence of the blade number on the performance of a small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine using experimental measurements and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The CFD simulations were conducted using ANSYS 2022 R2 software on a small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine with variations in the number of blades, specifically three, four, and five blades, conducted at various wind speeds. It should be noted that due to the setup limitation in the experiment, only the RPM of the three-bladed turbine was measured. Other variables such as torque and power were derived from CFD simulations. The results of this research indicate that an increase in the number of turbine blades tends to result in higher power output, where the highest output obtained was 46.25 Watts. Furthermore, as the number of turbine blades increases, the turbine efficiency also tends to increase, but as wind speed increases, the efficiency decreases. This is demonstrated by the research results, where a wind turbine with five blades achieved the highest efficiency at a speed of 3 m/s, at 38.00%, while at a speed of 6 m/s, the efficiency was 34.80%. Overall, through experiments and cross-validation of CFD and QBlade version 0.963.1, the present study could confirm the significant effect of the number of blades on the power produced by a small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine under low-speed conditions.

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