TITLE:
Effect of Boundary Layer Fence Location on HAWT Power Performance
AUTHORS:
Sundaravadivel Arumugam, Nadaraja Pillai Subramania, Senthilkumar Chidambaram
KEYWORDS:
HAWT, S809 Airfoil, Boundary Layer Fence, Wind Tunnel Testing
JOURNAL NAME:
Circuits and Systems,
Vol.7 No.8,
June
2,
2016
ABSTRACT: Even though wind energy is
a deep-rooted technology, but not yet mature and hence there are bounteous
scopes for improvement to reduce the cost of wind energy. An experimental
investigation has been carried out on 1:25 scaled S809 aerofoil blade featuring
boundary layer fence at various span wise location. Quantifying electrical
power obtained by rotation of wind turbine rotor coupled with dynamic testing
system. A baseline model with no flow control and an upgraded model with
detachable boundary layer fence have been studied in the wind tunnel. For
upgraded model, fences were placed along the location of 40% to 90% of the
blade span. The rotor blades are then tested dynamically in wind tunnel at open
terrain condition for 7 m/s, 9 m/s and 11 m/s velocities. In order to study the
effect of boundary layer fence test has been carried out in the low speed wind
tunnel having test section of size 0.9 m × 1.2 m × 2 m. Scope corder DL 750 is
used to measure time varying voltage and proximity sensor with its compatible
display unit is used to measure the rotor RPM. The flow behaviour was found to
be considerably favourable from conventional rotor blades. Installation of
fence has been found promising for increased energy extraction from air column
by controlling the three dimensional span wise flow. Results demonstrate the
potential of the proposed model which can obtain a maximum of about 11.8%
increase in the power. In addition, the significance of the location of wing
fence and blade pitch angle has been analysed.