Research of the Rotational Effects on the Aerodynamics Characteristics of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

The flow Held of the NREL phase VI horizontal axis wind turbine has been modeled with a full 3-D steady/unsteady RANS approach. In the investigations a full Navier Stokes code FLUENT is used instead of engineering models. The calculations are compared with the measurements of the Unsteady aerodynamic experiment at the NASA Ames wind tunnel at wind speeds between 8 m/s and 15 m/s in steps of 1 m/s for different angles of attack and stalled conditions. Computed pressure distributions and aerodynamic coefficients and the performances evidence the presences of augmented lift and stall delay for the span sections at r/R= 0.30 and r/R= 0.47.