Prediction Of MEXICO Wind Turbine Aerodynamic Performance By Panel Method

With the development of science and technology, it is impending to protect the environment due to the larger energy demand. As a clean green renewable energy resource, wind energy attracts great attention from the society. Power generated by the wind turbine is the main form of wind energy and wind turbine blades are the important wind energy absorption components. Therefore, research on the wind turbine aerodynamics of wind turbine blade is not only a hot topic of the current turbine aerodynamics study but also provides a basic foundation for winds turbine research.The flow field of a wind turbine rotor has such characteristics as low Mach number and high Reynolds number. In this thesis, the flow filed of a wind turbine rotor was treated as a potential flow field and the blade surface and blade wake were treated as the boundary of the potential flow field, therefore, the velocity potential equation was used as the governing equation and the panel method is adopted in the calculation to create a numerical model concerning the3-D aerodynamic performance of a horizontal axis wind turbine and program a calculation procedure of panel method in order to predict the aerodynamic performance of different axial inflow conditions under5types of wind velocity of the MEXICO wind turbine, and analyze the blade section pressure coefficient, normal force and tangential force. The aerodynamic performance of the five radial directions of25%,35%,60%,82%,92%of blade section were compared with the experimental results. It is found out the pressure coefficient at low wind speed is more consistent with the experimental results than the one at high speed:with the increase of wind speed, the position of the maximum pressure in the pressure side moved towards the trailing edge, and the position of the minimum pressure in the suction side moved towards the leading edge; under the same conditions, the pressure coefficient at the tip of the blade is closer to the experimental value than that of the blade root. It is also found out that the axial force of blade along the wingspan increases basically; the axial force on5radial directions is less than that of the experimental results at low wind speed; and the one at high wind speed is larger than the experimental results. It is further found out that the change of tangential force is gentle, and it had the tendency of decreasing along the wingspan. It is finally found out that the axial and tangential force on the same section increases with the increase of wind speed.The panel method considers the angle of attack effect, bending effect and the effect of the thickness. The disturbed flow field simulation and aerodynamic performance calculation of wind turbine based on the velocity potential panel method has obvious advantages over the lifting line, lifting surface method. Compared with CFD, its computing resources consumption sharply decreased. By comparing the numerical data with the experimental results, it is concluded that the panel method has such advantages as accuracy, high calculation efficiency and less correction, thus provides a good and accurate prediction for future studies on the aerodynamic performance of the wind turbine, especially for the wind turbines with large variable speed and variable pitch.