Investigating Power Augmentation of 1 MW Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Using Auxiliary Turbines

Abstract

Abstract Researchers face challenges in enhancing wind energy efficiency to utilize a large amount of green energy at the lowest cost, as the global need for climate change mitigation increases. This paper presents a numerical study to improve the capture efficiency of a 1 MW horizontal axis wind turbine installation by making the best use of available space by employing two extra 100 kW auxiliary turbines. The proposed design concept is based on installing the auxiliary turbines below the primary turbine blade zone on both sides of the tower to catch intruding aerodynamic flow. To solve the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) ANSYS-fluent software was utilized. Initially, a simple numerical model for a 1 MW horizontal axis wind turbine was created to simulate its performance characteristics. A steady-state solution was obtained using the Moving Reference Frame (MRF) approach for both single-rotor and multi-rotor turbines. The proposed design’s aerodynamic performance was then investigated using a transient model simulation with a sliding dynamic mesh approach. The numerical results of both steady and unsteady simulations revealed that the proposed design increased system power output by 12%.