CFD Simulation of Darrieus VAWT by Fluent and ICEM blocking

About this course

This course includes detailed steps for building a 3D-CFD model on ANSYS for Darrieus VAWT (also called H-rotor) to simulate the aerodynamic performance of the turbine. It focuses on the meshing step using ICEM blocks for creating an all-structured mesh. However, It's recommended in general to use a hybrid mesh (a combination of structured and unstructured mesh) as will be covered in upcoming courses.

1. Geometry was built using DesignModeler. 2. Mesh was built by ICEM blocks. 3. Solver is Fluent. 4. Post-processing was done by CFD post.

ANSYS 2020R1 was used, except for post-processing 2023R2 was used, but there are no differences between the 2 versions regarding the explained points.

The paper "Investigation of V-shaped blade for the performance improvement of vertical axis wind turbines" was used as a reference for the turbine geometry and the case details. The final Cp has 17.8% relative error with the experimental Cp at TSR = 2.6.

Number of cells is 4,863,000 which is relatively small comparing with number of cells used in the numerical study in the reference which is 11,700,000. The rotor has 3 uniform blades with airfoil sections NACA 0021, rotor diameter 1030 mm, airfoil chord 85.8 mm and solidity 0.25.

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