Investigation of the Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Wind Turbine Blade for Performance Enhancement

Wind energy is one of the major energy sources contributing about 5 per cent of the total global power production. Given the current energy scenario, renewable energy resources, such as wind energy, will be critical for development and sustainment of our world. Better power generation capabilities from wind energy resources leads to improved viability of using wind energy as a reliable energy source. This paper focusses on performance characteristics and evaluation of a wind turbine blade using the reverse engineering process. A blade of a 600 Watt wind turbine that was in operation for more than two years was selected. The blade's profile was extracted using a probe-type co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM). Several challenges were faced while taking the profile exactly, using the CMM machine due to the presence of shrunk-in and built-up portions. The shortcomings were overcome by mounting the blade in four different orientations, viz: top section, bottom section, leading edge section, and the trailing edge section. Each orientation resulted in four different blade profile curves, and these profiles were merged using CATIA software to get the shape of the airfoil. The aerodynamic performance characteristics for the two-dimensional profile of the blade were analysed using CFDFluent. The study of the airflow around the blade; flow conditions, such as laminar, turbulent, lift co-efficient; and drag co-efficient from the study gave valuable insight about the performance of the wind turbine. By evaluating the performance of the blade, the scope for modifying the geometry of the blade for the optimized condition can be considered, for further enhancement of performance of the wind turbine.