Abstract:
This work is to study the aerodynamics performance of a 2-D wind turbine airfoil with divergent trailing edge modification. Studies of airfoil aerodynamic characteristic are done using computational fluid dynamics technique. Flow fields are simulated and analyzed with two-dimensional RANS simulations at Reynolds number of 1x105. To simulate the effect of turbulence, the SST k - w turbulent model is used.
The airfoil trailing edge is modified by parameters such as length and curvature, to study effect of trailingedge shape. Additionally the present work aims to provide a conceptual idea of applying the divergent trailing edge for further suitable application of wind turbine. Validation is done by comparing the computed results with the experimental data. The results show that the length of divergent trailing edge is of 10% chord. For angle of attack ranged from 0 to 10 degrees, the lift-to-drag ratio is approximately increased by 3% when compared to that of the airfoil with Gurney Flap, and by 90% when compared to that of the clean airfoil. This leads to an increment in aerodynamics performance of the airfoil and it could be possible to apply the modified airfoil for 3-D wind turbine blades to enhance power generation which will be studied in future works.