Wind tunnel experiments of a pair of interacting vertical-axis wind turbines

Abstract

Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have received a renewed interest in the wind energy research community, mainly for off-shore applications. One advantage is that installing a pair of counterrotating VAWTs on the same floating platform would result in thrust reduction and potential cancellation of the mooring yaw moment. In addition, such configurations could benefit from increased power output and reduced wake losses.In this article, we report on wind tunnel experiments to study the mechanical power output of a reference VAWT scale model, tested individually and in a closely-spaced pair of VAWTs. The power output of the individual VAWT configuration is compared with a pair of VAWTs spaced 1.3 diameters apart for two counterrotating directions. A net power increase in the power coefficient for the paired configuration of up to 17.0 % compared with two individual rotors has been observed.

Publication
Journal of Physics: Conference Series