A comparative examination of the aerodynamic performance of various seashell-shaped wind turbines.

Abstract

The seashell-shaped wind turbine (spiral wind turbine SWT), a brand-new form of the horizontal axis wind turbine, is intended for metropolitan use. SWTs have the additional advantage of being installed anywhere without considering their surroundings, as they do not need to be located facing the wind direction. The present work introduces various designs of the rotor of the seashell wind turbine to achieve the greatest performance. Two types of turbine spiral profiles (logarithmic and Archimedean) are investigated with changing the turbine opening angle (<i>θ</i>). Utilizing the turbulence model SST <i>k-ω</i>, the equations of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) are solved and hence the power coefficient (<i>C</i>_<i>P</i>) is calculated. A comprehensive comparison of the findings for both configurations indicates that the turbine of the Archimedean spiral profile with <i>θ</i> of 60° generates the best performance. The seashell wind turbine with the Archimedean profile at a <i>θ</i> of 60° has a maximum <i>C</i>_<i>P</i> = 0.266825 at λ = 2.5. The seashell wind turbine with the Archimedean profile has the best performance than traditional Archimedes wind turbines which were studied previously by other researchers. The maximum percentage increase in the <i>C</i>_<i>P</i> of the seashell turbine with the Archimedean profile compared to the conventional Archimedes turbine equals 14.52%.