Numerical analyses of a small wind turbine with special consideration of the installation site - The case of " Air 30"

Wind power is becoming increasingly relevant due to the current efforts to re place energy conversione based on fossil fuel with renewable sources of energy which could lead to a moregreen production, considering the increasing value of the climate change which is becoming more and more relavant. The kinetic en ergy contained in wind, which in contrast to solar energy, for example is avaiable in sufficient quantities for large parts of the year, can be converted into electrical energy by wind turbines either in onshore installations and offshore ones. About the energy production by wind, the wind turbine can be of different sizes, start ing from the most spread with the rated power in the order of MW and the small ones, with a rated power which could be lower than kW. The one used for this goal is the AIR 30 by Primus Wind Power Inc., charactherised by its small rotor diameter and a blade count of three. In order to enable both an experimental and a numerical investigation using 3D CFD methods, a numerical representation of the experimental setup must be developed. Due to the positioning of the rotor in the exhaust channel of an axial compressor, a particular focus is to be placed on the boundary conditions to be imposed. The investigations should cover several aspects comprehending the following ones listed below:-Generation of a numerical grid fora suitable segment of the rotor.-Integration of the rotor segment into the existing numerical setup of the ex haust channel.-Implementation of the real prevailing boundary conditions and development of a suitable conditioning of the numerical representation.-Systematic variation of the operating condition of the wind turbine.-Analysis of aerodynamic and performance parameters and comparison with experimental data.-Developmentofpossibleoptimisationapproachesandenablingacorrespond ing modular adaptation of the CFD setup obtained.