Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 12-18-2020

Abstract

Wind turbine blades are commonly made of airfoils due to their high lifting characteristics. The performance of the airfoils can reach higher optimal conditions with applying various modifications on the airfoil geometry.  The need to improve airfoil performance at low values of Reynolds number is essential to small power wind turbines. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate methods to increase the lift to drag ratio, which results in better aerodynamic performance of the airfoil used in wind turbines at low Reynolds number using active flow control by employing a surface cavity with suction. The investigation considered both symmetric and non-symmetric airfoils, namely: NACA0018 and SG6043 airfoils. The flow over the airfoil was simulated by employing a two-dimensional numerical model and solving the RANS equations using ANSYS-FLUENT software. Different cavity parameters were selected for the study such as cavity size, position and suction volume flow rate. The results of each case are compared with the corresponding results of the baseline airfoils. The suction cavity was used to trap a vortex inside the cavity to eliminate flow separation. The active cavity shows a significant enhancement in boundary layer control by delaying the flow separation at high angles of attack for both airfoils studied in the present work.

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