Study change of the performance of airfoil of small wind turbine under low wind speed by CFD simulation

Abstract

Renewable energy has received strong attention and investment to replace fossil energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Quite good and good wind speed areas have been invested in building large-capacity wind farms for many years. The low wind speed region occupies a very large on the world, which has been interested in the exploitation of wind energy in recent years. In this study, the original airfoil of S1010 operated at low wind speed was redesigned to increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the airfoil by using XFLR5 software. After, the new VAST-EPU-S1010 airfoil model was adjusted to the maximum thickness and the maximum thickness position. It was simulated in low wind speed conditions of 4-6 m/s by CFD simulation. The lift coefficient, drag coefficient and $C_{L}$/$C_{D}$ coefficient ratio were evaluated under the effect of the angle of attack and the maximum thickness by using the $k-\epsilon$ model. Simulation results show that the VAST-EPU-S1010 airfoil achieved the greatest aerodynamic efficiency at the angle of attack of 3\,^{\circ}, the maximum thickness of 8\% and the maximum thickness position of 20.32\%. The maximum value of $C_{L}$/$C_{D}$ of the new airfoil at 6 m/s is higher than at the 4 m/s by about 6.25\%.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figure