Effect of blade inclination angle for straight-bladed vertical-axis wind turbines

Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have received renewed research interest in the offshore environment due to a number of design synergies that have the potential to decrease the cost of energy for offshore wind. Many studies have been completed on the rotor design for straight-bladed rotors (H-rotors); however, there is sparse information on the effect of blade inclination angle on VAWT aerodynamic performance and the optimal blade design of VAWTs with inclined blades (V-rotors) for maximum power capture.

This paper presents a systematic study into the effect of blade inclination angle and chord distribution on VAWT performance for different aspect ratios using a 3D implementation of the 2D actuator cylinder model which has been previously validated against higher-fidelity methods. A systematic approach based on a grid search is used to allow the wider design space to be studied and trends identified.

In the case of fixed-chord-length blades, it is found that significant power gains are available through blade inclination, between 12 % and 71 % depending on blade length. This is driven by the increase in rotor swept area. Further investigation indicates that despite this, under maximum blade stress limitations the most economical solution for fixed-chord-length blades is H-rotors. Optimal chord distributions, which maximise the rotor power coefficient, are then obtained, and a natural blade taper is observed. For rotors with optimal chord distributions, similar power gains are observed through blade inclination, again between 12 % and 71 % depending on blade length. However, rotor configurations with the largest power gains are found to have significantly increased blade mass. For a given power rating, whilst satisfying limitations on maximum blade root bending stress, it is found that blade volume, a proxy for the blade mass, can be reduced between 16 % and 42 % dependent on blade length, and rotor torque can be reduced between 4 % and 9 %. This indicates the potential of V-rotors to reduce the cost of energy compared to H-rotors in traditional VAWT designs. Additionally, inclined blades are shown to increase the operational tip-speed ratio, demonstrating their applicability to turbines using secondary rotors, such as the X-rotor, where high tip-speed ratios are required for efficient power conversion between primary and secondary rotors.