Sharif Digital Repository

In this study, the effect of deploying microtabs on performance improvement of a horizontal axis wind turbine blade is numerically investigated in three-dimensions. The NREL Phase VI, a stall-regulated upwind wind turbine, is used as the baseline case. Different cases are considered to investigate the effects of spanwise location as well as the height variation of tabs along the blade span, on the flow over the rotor blade. In all cases, the tab is located at 95% chord of the airfoil section on the lower surface of the blade. Results reveal that locating microtabs at the outboard part of the blade has a greater impact on the rotor performance than the inboard part. However, both cases... 

In this study a multi-objective genetic algorithm is utilized to obtain a Pareto optimal set of solutions for geometrical characteristics of airfoil sections for 10-meter blades of a horizontal axis wind turbine. The performance of the airfoil sections during the process of energy conversion is evaluated deploying a 2D incompressible unsteady CFD solver and the second law analysis. Artificial neural networks are trained employing CFD obtained data sets to represent objective functions in an algorithm which implements exergetic performance and integrity characteristics as optimization objectives. The results show that utilizing the second law approach along with Pareto optimality concept... 

The present study numerically investigates the feasibility of using multiple dielectric barrier discharge (multi-DBD) plasma actuators as a novel approach for active flow control over a large horizontal axis wind turbine rotor. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5 MW offshore wind turbine is used as the baseline case. This turbine uses pitch control system to adjust the generated power above its rated wind speeds, but at lower speeds, this system remains inactive. In this paper, the operational condition speed is considered lower than the rated wind speed. The mathematical electro-static model is implemented to simulate the effects of plasma actuator on the external flow and the... 

Currently, the thermal management of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has become a challenge. In the present research, a micro pulsating heat pipe (MPHP) with a hydraulic diameter of 508 lm, is experimented. The thermal performance of the MPHP in both the transient and steady conditions, the effects of the working fluid (water, silver nanofluid, and ferrofluid), heating power (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 28 W), charging ratio (20, 40, 60, and 80%), inclination angle (0 deg, 25 deg, 45 deg, 75 deg, and 90 deg relative to horizontal axis), and the application of magnetic field, are investigated and thoroughly discussed. The experimental results show that the optimum charging ratio for water... 

In the present research an experimental investigation is performed to explore the effects of working fluid, heat input, ferrofluid concentration, magnets location, and inclination angle on the thermal performance of an Open Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe (OLPHP). Obtained results show that using ferrofluid can improve the thermal performance and applying a magnetic field on the water based ferrofluid decreases the thermal resistance. It shows that at an inclination angle of the OLPHP to be zero, the thermal performance of the present OLPHP reduces. Best heat transfer capability was achieved at 67.5 degree relative to horizontal axis for all of working fluids. Variation of the magnets location... 

Tethered airborne wind energy systems are among emerging renewable energy technologies in recent years. These systems can harness greater power densities at higher altitudes with lower costs of installation and energy production in comparison with those from conventional ground-based energy harnessing technologies. A Buoyant Airborne Turbine (BAT) as a flying aerostat has a horizontal axis wind turbine within its shell and can elevate up to 600m. There are a number of pertinent parameters such as BAT configurations/component dimensions or its aerodynamic characteristics that impact the system total power performance. Identifying the optimum values of these parameters by conducting... 

The present study was aimed at developing a model to optimize the sizing parameters and farm layout of wind turbines according to the wind resource and economic aspects. The proposed model, including aerodynamic, economic and optimization sub-models, is used to achieve minimum levelized cost of electricity. The blade element momentum theory is utilized for aerodynamic modeling of pitch-regulated horizontal axis wind turbines. Also, a comprehensive cost model including capital costs of all turbine components is considered. An iterative approach is used to develop the optimization model. The modeling results are presented for three potential regions in Iran: Khaf, Ahar and Manjil. The optimum... 

Wind turbines are of the most promising devices to cut down carbon emissions. However, some phenomena that adversely affect their performance are inevitable. The aim of the present paper is to investigate flow separation prevention exploiting leading edge (LE) single dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator (SDBD-PA) on an airfoil belonging to a section of a locally developed wind turbine. The numerical results of the surface pressure distribution over the airfoil were compared with the experimental measurements carried out by the authors on the same blade section, and good agreement was found between numerical and experimental data for both plasma-OFF and plasma-ON cases. An in-depth... 

Safe pitch angle-based pole–zero–gain scheduling, and controller blending of H∞ controllers for a variable-speed variable-pitch wind turbine in the full load region are introduced in this paper. The design methodology ensures proper model reduction and modification, canonical controller realization, and cancellation of the hidden coupling terms that emerge from these scheduling procedures to maintain the stability of the closed–loop dynamics during wind turbine operation. In contrast to previous multi-model designs that either involve scheduling of complex transfer functions or depend on less-reliable wind speed estimations, in the presented framework only a portion of the controller is... 

The first notable megawatt class wind turbine, which was the pioneer of improvement in the blade performance in large wind turbines, appeared in Vermont. Nowadays, modern wind turbines are using blades with multi-airfoils at different sections. In this study, in order to indicate the best airfoil profile for the optimum performance in different sections of a blade, five popular airfoils, including S8xx, FFA and AH series, were studied. On the large-scale profile, shear stress transport K–ω model was applied for the simulation of horizontal axis wind turbines for different wind speeds. The aerodynamic simulation was accomplished using computational fluid dynamic method, which in turn is based... 

In this paper, the aeroelastic analysis of a large scale wind turbine rotor is performed with the aim of studying transient performance of turbine in extreme wind conditions, such as wind gusts and rapid yaw changes. The effect of the presence and/or lack of blade pitch control system on output power, rotor thrust, and blade deformation in sudden change of wind speed are investigated. The NREL 5 MW offshore wind turbine is used as the baseline case. In this regard, the modal approach is implemented for modeling the flexible blade structure with tension, bending and torsion degrees of freedom. The unsteady vortex lattice method is employed to obtain the aerodynamic loads. Moreover, the...