Performance Evaluation of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with a Leading Edge Flap

摘要

This paper presents an experimental study for the main design and performance parameters concerning by a small scale vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). Two models (Two and Four cambered blades) are designed and tested in an open wind tunnel. The studied parameters including: variation of rotational speed at different blade angles as well as variation of torque and power coefficients at different tip-speed ratios. The study also has been carried out to investigate the performance of (VAWT) with/without leading edge flap blades. The experimental data obtained at different blade angles ranges from 15° to 60° are presented and analyzed in order to give an acceptable blade angle through the study. A simple theoretical model is developed to verify and check up some experimental results. The final experimental results showed that the blade angle of 45° enhances the performance of (VAWT) comparing the other ones for both two and four bladed rotors. Furthermore, using a flap blade enhances the maximum power coefficient by 2.4% compared by the same model without flap blade.