Study on advanced aerogenerator with “rotor-in-socket” assembly type

Introduction. There is a performance improvement problem of the existing wind-driven power plants (WPP). It is worthwhile investigating nonclassical types of the WPP to solve it. The most promising are the WPP which use special guide static elements to create vortex structures. The latter contributes to the increased aerodynamic efficiency of the WPP. Materials and Methods. Ansys Workbench and Ansys Fluent software packages are used to calculate the design aerodynamics of the wind turbines. Research Results. On the analysis of the particular publications, the viability of the vortex-type WPP studies in which the additional stator structures are used to increase their energy efficiency, is proved. The aerodynamics analysis of the WPP with “rotor-in-socket” assembly type is carried out using the continuum dynamics computational methods. An advanced WPP design is obtained by the aerodynamic optimization technique. Discussion and Conclusions. The obtained results show that the construction of the vortex-type turbine on the basis of the favourable interference concept of rotor and stator is promising. The specific form of WPP with a vertical axis of rotation, axisymmetric stator and socket of special forms is analyzed. The methods of the aerodynamic optimization of the described WPP design are considered. On the basis of this methodology, an advanced socket form and its assembly with the rotor which allows reaching an average calculated value of the favourable air moment that exceeds more than twofold the corresponding value for the initial geometry of the WPP, are obtained.