A BEM-XFOIL Toolbox for Performance Prediction of VAWTs

Accurate predictions of power coefficient and other performance parameters of vertical axis wind turbines are crucial for the design process in industry. Meanwhile, this procedure is incorporated with several challenges since the flow is complex involving a wide range variation of the angle of incidence. Blade element momentum (BEM) theory is the basis for development of several research codes in which the airfoil data is given as the input and the wind turbine aerodynamic performance is obtained, but the accuracy of airfoil data is one of the key factors which influence the prediction reliability of power coefficient and the other performance parameters. On the other hand, in some occasions, the airfoil experimental data is not available and as a consequence, the aerodynamic evaluation of the turbine is not possible. In the present research work, a BEM-XFOIL tool is developed to estimate the performance of a previously experimented turbine. The results show that the developed model has a reasonable rate of accuracy and could be suitable for performance prediction and optimization of vertical axis turbines.

کلیدواژه ها:

BEM-XFOIL