Aerodynamic Study of a Small-Scale Wind Turbine

Abstract

Wind is becoming a competitive energy source, dragging more and more attention as a renewable, economically viable and greener alternative to traditional sources. Large scale wind farms connected to national power grids are today very common in Europe and USA. In the other end of wind power generation spectrum, we find small-scale wind turbines designed and built to be used at isolated spots, such as farms in the Argentinean Patagonia. In these small scale applications, the imposibility to connect to the national power grid adds an aditional interest to the use of wind turbines as a source of electric energy.
In the present work an aerodynamic study of a small-scale commercial wind turbine is performed, using simplified theoretical models and 2D and 3D CFD calculations. Turbine power output is estimated and compared with experimental mesurements. Pressure distribution over the blades is calculated, in order to perform Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) analyses. Conclusions and future work are stated.