Performance Modeling of Ducted Vertical Axis Turbine Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

Vertical axis turbines (VATs) excel over horizontal axis turbines in their independent flow direction. VATs that operate in an enclosure, e.g., a diffuser shroud, are reported to generate more power than unducted VATs. A diffuser-shrouded, high solidity of 36.67%, three-blade VAT with NACA 63₃-018 airfoil section is modeled in 2-D using the commercial software ANSYS-FLUENT^®. Incompressible, unsteady, segregated, implicit, and second order in time and space solver is implemented in association with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulent model with a reasonable computational cost. The computational results are assessed against experimental data for unducted VAT at low tip speed ratios between 1 and 2 for further numerical analysis on diffuser models. Different diffuser designs are investigated using suitable nozzle size, area ratio, length-to-diameter ratio and angles between the diffuser inner surfaces. The numerical model shows that, for a specific diffuser design, the ducted VAT performance coefficient can be augmented by almost 90% over its unducted counterpart.