Numerical Investigations on the Effect of Blade Angles of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine on its Performance Output

There are many social, political and environmental issues associated with the use of fossil fuels. For this reason, there are numerous investigations currently being carried out to develop newer and renewable sources of energy to alleviate energy demand. Wind is one source of energy that can be harnessed using wind turbines. In this study, numerical investigations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver have been carried out to determine the optimum blade angles of a wind turbine used in urban environment. The effect of these blade angles have been considered to be within the normal operating range (α from 1.689⁰ to 21.689⁰, ϒ from 18.2⁰ to 38.2⁰ and δ from 22.357⁰ to 42.357⁰) while β was kept constant at 90⁰ due to design requirements. The results show that as α increases average torque output increases to a certain point after which it remains constant. On the contrary, as ϒ and δ increase, average torque output decreases. From the results, it can be concluded that the ideal blade angles, for optimal torque output, are α=11.689⁰, ϒ=18.2⁰ and δ=22.357⁰.