CFD Study of Flow Field Velocities and 3D Effects over the MEXICO Wind Turbine Model

Abstract

The deep understanding about wake field and 3D effects of wind turbines are still a challenge, due to the complexity of the three-dimensional flow which blades rotation produces. In this work an aerodynamic analysis about wind turbine model MEXICO is realized, firstly of axial distribution of velocities in several regions inside the streamtube and then some estimations of 3D effects, either lift coefficient augmentation or stall delay phenomenon. CFD-RANS simulations have been carried out at three different wind speeds, and results are compared to experimental data of the MEXICO project, from wind tunnel tests. Results show that axial and radial inductions are greater for outer sections and lower as wind speed increases, providing different wake configurations. As for the 3D effects, it is found that rotational augmentation appears firstly for inner part of the blade and they advance progressively towards span-wise direction as wind velocity grows. For inner section, at high wind speed, lift coefficient increase reaches to values of 50% over the corresponding 2D polar curve.