Thermal Science 2016 Volume 20, Issue suppl. 4, Pages: 1091-1098
https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI16S4091N
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Numerical investigation of airfoils for small wind turbine applications
Natarajan Karthikeyan (National Institute of Technology Trichy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India)
Thomas Suthakar (National Institute of Technology Trichy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India)
Ramachadran Bhagavathi Ammal Anand (National Institute of Technology Trichy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India)
A detailed numerical investigation of the aerodynamic performance on the five
airfoils namely Mid321a, Mid321b, Mid321c, Mid321d, and Mid321e were carried
out at Reynolds numbers ranging from 0.5×105 to 2.5×105. The airfoils used
for small wind turbines are designed for Reynolds number ranges between 3×105
and 5×105 and the blades are tend to work on off-design conditions. The blade
element moment method was applied to predict the aerodynamic loads, power
coefficient, and blade parameters for the airfoils. Based on the evaluate
data, it was found that Mid321c airfoil has better lift to drag ratio over
the range of Reynolds numbers and attained maximum power coefficient of
0.4487 at Re = 2×105.
Keywords: small wind turbine, blade element moment, low Reynolds number, airfoils