Maryam Refan

e-mail: mrefan@uwo.ca

Aerodynamic Performance of a Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

The aerodynamic performance of an upwind, three-bladed, small horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) rotor of 2.2 m in diameter was investigated experimentally and theoretically in order to assess the applicability of the blade element momentum (BEM) theory for modeling the rotor performance for the case of small HAWTs. The wind turbine has been tested in the low and high speed sections of the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel 2 (BLWT2) at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in order to determine the power curve over a wide range of wind speeds. Afterward, the BEM theory has been implemented to evaluate the rotor performance and to investigate three-dimensionality effects on power prediction by the theory. Comparison between the theoretical and experimental results shows that the overall prediction of the theory is within an acceptable range of accuracy. However, the BEM theory prediction for the case of small wind turbines is not as accurate as the prediction for larger wind turbines. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4005751]

Horia Hangan
e-mail: hmh@blwtl.uwo.ca The Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B9, Canada

Introduction

The stimulus for wind energy development in the 1970s was increasing oil price and concerns over limited fossil-fuel resources. At present, the use of wind energy is growing because it is renewable and widely available energy source. Over the past decade, wind power has been the fastest-growing energy source in the world [1]. According to Standard and Poors Ratings Services, from 2000 to 2003, wind power capacity has been increased 87% in the United States and 159% in Europe. The wind energy industry deals with two main categories of wind turbines: large wind turbines, which are widely used in wind farms to provide grid electricity; and small wind turbines, which are mostly used in rural areas, small commercial applications and remote operations [2]. A new Carbon Trust study [2] on the potential of small wind turbines has determined that they could generate up to 1.5 TWh/ year of electricity which is 0.4% of total United Kingdom electricity consumption, saving 0.6 106 tonnes of CO2 emission annually. In addition, surveys [1] show that during the past 5 years, the small wind turbine market in Canada has experienced some growth, with the current capacity of all small wind turbines in Canada estimated to be between 1.8 MW and 4.5 MW. Despite this growth, small HAWTs have not been studied as thoroughly as their large counterparts. Large wind turbines provide reliable, cost-effective, and competitive power, and their technology is almost mature. However, due to a greater technological variety of small wind turbines [3], with rated power output between 300 W and 50 kW, comprehensive studies are limited. Herein, we focus our investigation on small wind turbines with rated power output from 300 W to 1 kW, as currently 90% of small wind turbines installed in Canada fall into this category of rated power output [3]. The rst and most important step in the development of the wind energy industry is the turbine design. The aerodynamic performance of a wind turbine plays a key role in power generation by the rotor, and predicting the power output of a turbine at different wind speeds is an important step in the design process. There are various mathematical models for performance analysis of the turbine rotor including Blade Element Momentum theory, Vortex Wake method, and Acceleration Potential. Among the
Contributed by Applied Mechanics of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING. Manuscript received January 12, 2011; nal manuscript received November 8, 2011; published online March 15, 2012. Assoc. Editor: Spyros Voutsinas.

above mentioned modeling techniques, the BEM theory is the most common mathematical model for evaluating wind turbine performance. There are two reasons for the popularity of this theory: (1) the accuracy of the method for a wide variety of ow conditions and rotors and (2) the relative simplicity of the method [4]. The BEM theory uses the lift and drag coefcients of the turbine blades airfoils to evaluate the performance of the rotor. In recent years, several efforts have been made to modify and optimize the BEM theory to provide accurate and reliable results. Challenges relate to the evaluation of the axial and angular induction factors (a and a0 , respectively), curve tting of the lift and drag coefcients, as well as benchmarking against experimental data to assess and improve the theory. This lack of benchmarking is a common challenge with all wind turbine performance evaluation techniques [5]. Buhl [6] and Glauert [7] proposed corrections to the determination of the axial induction factor for heavily loaded turbines which stabilize the numerical solution. Moreover, various mathematical models were presented to describe the lift and drag coefcients which consider effects of the radial ow along the blade [5,8,9]. Lanzafame and Messina [5] introduced a fth-order logarithmic polynomial to describe the lift and drag coefcients; they compared their results with 2D data from wind tunnel measurements, the Wilson and Lissaman model [10], and the Viterna and Corrigan post stall model [11]. The comparison showed that the proposed model is more accurate in terms of power output prediction compared with the previous models, especially for higher wind speeds. The results highlighted that the representation of lift and drag coefcients has a signicant role in the performance analysis of the wind turbine rotor. However, the accuracy of all these representations needs to be extended for different operating conditions and a range of wind turbines. In 2000, a two-bladed turbine of NREL [8] with a 10 m diameter rotor was placed in the 24 m 36 m wind tunnel of NASA Ames for pressure measurements along the blade. A detail investigation of aerodynamic coefcients in stall, based on the measured data for the S809 airfoil, resulted in a modied model for the coefcients in stall. Afterward, a comprehensive experimental study was performed on a three-bladed wind turbine with a 4.5 m rotor in German Dutch wind tunnel [12]. This study focused on pressure measurements at ve radial positions and PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) measurements of inow and wake velocities. Providing validation measurements for existing methods is one of the most important steps in modifying various theories and MAY 2012, Vol. 134 / 021013-1

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improving the accuracy of the power output prediction [4,5]. While some investigations of small HAWTs exist, reliability of the BEM theory in the case of small wind turbines has not previously been addressed. Small wind turbines are characterized by smaller blade aspect ratio compared with large wind turbines. Therefore, in case of a small HAWT, where the three-dimensional effects are more signicant due to smaller blade aspect ratio (compared to large HAWTs), the BEM theory may not work accurately. The lack of adequate experimental data on the wind turbine performance and evaluation of BEM theory performance in case of small HAWTs, motivated the present work. An upwind, threebladed small HAWT rotor of 2.2 m in diameter, capable of producing 900 W of rated power, has been selected. The wind turbine has been tested in the wind tunnel to determine the performance of the rotor for a wide range of wind speeds. These comprehensive tests on the HAWT provide performance data that can be used for the evaluation of various mathematical models employed for performance prediction. Moreover, the validity of wind tunnel testing and experimental techniques, including full scale HAWT wind tunnel tests and blockage corrections were addressed. The overall scope of the present work is, therefore, twofold: (i) assessing the feasibility of wind tunnel testing for small HAWT to determine reliable power curves even for high solid blockage ratios and (ii) evaluating the possible limitations of the BEM theory to predict small HAWT performance.

Experimental Setup and Procedure

An upwind, three-bladed small HAWT rotor of 2.2 m in diameter was tested in the BLWT2 at the University of Western Ontario. The wind turbine was rst tested in the low speed test section of the tunnel followed by tests in the high speed test section to determine the power output of the rotor for a wide range of tunnel wind speeds, from 1 m/s to 11 m/s. Moreover, the experiments were aimed at assessing the feasibility of testing a wind turbine in a wind tunnel for high solid blockage ratios. A rated power output of 900 W at 12.9 m/s and a peak power output of 1200 W at 17 m/s were reported for this turbine by the manufacturer. The wind turbine has an eight-pole synchronous generator with 900 rpm synchronous speed in a 60 Hz electrical network. A furling mechanism is used to tilt the rotor at high wind speeds. The furling serves both as a power output regulator and a damage protection mechanism. Also, the wind turbine has a control panel which includes all necessary power management, conversion, and diversion load safety circuits. The BLWT2 (see Fig. 1) is a large closed-loop wind tunnel which includes two sections. The high speed section has a rectangular cross section of 5 m by 3.5 m and a maximum wind speed of 28 m/s and the low speed section has a rectangular cross section of 3.5 m by 2.6 m and a maximum wind speed of 10 m/s. 2.1 Low Speed Wind Tunnel Tests. The rotor was tested in the low speed test section of the wind tunnel in order to determine the power curve of the wind turbine in low wind speeds and assess the performance of the furling mechanism. The wind turbine rotor was installed 11 m downstream from the entrance of the low speed test section on a 1.7 m high pole, and the tail was xed to prevent yaw motion of the rotor (see Fig. 2). The

Fig. 2 (a) Schematic drawing of the rotor test conguration in low speed test section (modied image from Natural Resources Canada) and (b) Installation setup in the wind tunnel

Fig. 1

Drawing of the BLWT2

three-phase generator output was converted to a direct current (DC), which would be used to charge a battery in actual working condition. In this test, the dc output of the generator was connected to variable power resistors. At each wind speed, the power output was calculated by measuring the voltage and the resistance. A standard digital multimeter was used to measure the voltage of the DC power output. The accuracy of the volt meter is 1% of full scale where the full scale voltage for this multimeter is 100 V. An oscilloscope was used to measure the rotational speed of the rotor. The oscilloscope probes were connected to the ground wire and one phase of the generator output to measure the frequency of the voltage signal. Since the characteristics of the generator are known, one can calculate the rpm of the rotor using the following expression: rotational speed (rpm) (generator synchronous speed frequency of the voltage signal)/frequency of the electrical network. The wind velocity was measured using pitot-static tubes upstream of the rotor at the height of the rotor hub (1.7 m). Two pitot-static tubes (0.3 m apart) were used to cross-check the accuracy of the velocity measurement and each tube led from the tunnel to a calibrated pressure system. The maximum uncertainty associated with measuring velocity is 0.031 m/s. The local turbulence intensity and normalized mean velocity, which were previously measured using hot-wire anemometry [13], reveal that the boundary layer thickness upstream of the location of the wind turbine, in the middle of the section, is about 0.37 m (corresponding to U/U1 0.95). The rotor is, therefore, located out of the boundary layer and the turbulence intensity at the height of the rotor hub is approximately 4%. The solid blockage caused by the rotor, i.e., the rotor disk area divided by cross sectional area of the tunnel (Ad/C), in this test Transactions of the ASME

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section is about 21%. This is, however, a conservative blockage ratio calculation since the rotor solidity is relatively low (r0 0.039). Resistors varying from 0.2 X to 4 X were used and the DC power output of the rotor was measured for 1 m/s U1 9 m/s at each load. In order to consider the hysteresis behavior in the AC generator, the power output was measured at different free stream velocities once by increasing the wind speed to the maximum value and then again by decreasing the ow velocity. It was observed that except for the start-up speeds, the hysteresis loss in the generator is negligible. 2.2 High Speed Wind Tunnel Tests. Following the rotor test in the low speed section of the wind tunnel, the rotor was tested in the high speed section of the same wind tunnel in order to determine the power curve of the wind turbine in high wind speeds and evaluate the blockage effects on the rotor performance. The wind turbine was installed on a 1.3 m high pole in the high speed section of BLWT2, which is 2.6 m high by 3.5 m wide. At a height of 30 cm and greater above the wind tunnel oor, the boundary layer effects of the oor are no longer present and the turbulence intensity at the rotor hub, in the middle of the tunnel, is about 0.3% [13]. The solid blockage caused by the rotor in this section of the tunnel is about 45%. This high blockage ratio can cause signicant errors in the test results and needs further corrections. The measurement instruments were the same as for the low speed test. Two pitot-static tubes (30 cm apart) upstream of the rotor at the height of the rotor hub (1.3 m) were used for velocity measurements. For wind speeds higher than 11 m/s, the loads became overheated and the test was stopped due to safety issues. The low speed tests showed that the resistance that results in the maximum aerodynamic performance of the turbine is between 1 X and 4 X. Therefore, for the high speed tests, the DC power output was measured for 1, 2, and 4 X resistances and for wind speeds 7 m/s U1 11 m/s.

a r0 Cl cos u Cd sin u 1 a 4F sin2 u 1 a 2

0

(2)

! s 4 1 2 a1 a 1 kr

(3)

where r0 is the local solidity, h is the twist angle of the section, kr is the local tip speed ratio, and F is Prandtl tip loss correction factor. The lift and drag coefcients in Eq. (2) depend on Reynolds number and the angle of attack for each blade section. An iterative solution is used to determine the ow conditions at each blade element using the BEM equations [Eqs. (1)(3)].

Results and Discussion

The BEM Theory

By applying the conservation of linear and angular momentum to an annular element of the rotor disk (which is of radius r and of radial width dr), one can nd the thrust (T) and torque (Q) on the annular ring of the rotor as a function of axial and angular induction factors, a and a0 [6]. Furthermore, by applying the blade element theory for a blade element at radius r, the main ow parameters are obtained (see Fig. 3). By equating normal forces and torques from the blade element theory and momentum theory, one can obtain the ow parameters, a, a0 , and a for each blade element.   1a ; auh (1) u tan1 1 a0 kr

4.1 Experimental Results. The power outputs measured in the low speed section of the tunnel are shown in Fig. 4 for various tunnel wind speed as a function of rotational speed of the rotor. The aerodynamic performance of the wind turbine is dened as the maximum power output of the rotor at each wind speed independent of loading. Thus, the measured aerodynamic performance curve of the wind turbine for various wind speeds consists of the peak power at each wind speed. The aerodynamic performance curve shows that for low speed tests, a maximum power of 470 W is generated at 9 m/s and the cut-in speed of the rotor is about 5 m/s which is relatively high. Also, the experimental result for U1 5 m/s is not reliable as the peak power output is not captured. The furling mechanism is critical for small wind turbines both as a power regulation mechanism and to avoid structural failure. In this case, it is seen that the rotor starts tilting for wind velocities larger than 7 m/s and the angle of tilting increases with increasing wind speed reaching approximately 10 deg and 30 deg at U1 8 m/s and U1 9 m/s, respectively. The tilting angle at U1 9 m/s is relatively large and it is expected that for higher wind speeds (U1 > 9 m/s) the furling mechanism will seriously disrupt the operation of the wind turbine. As a result, the nacelle was xed to avoid tilting during the high speed tests. The power outputs measured in the high speed section of the tunnel are shown in Fig. 5 for various tunnel wind speeds as a function of rotational speed. Figure 6 shows experimental results for a wide range of wind speeds. Since the furling mechanism was xed in the high speed test and the blockage effects are relatively higher in this case compared to the low speed test, the power output measured in the high

Fig. 3

Blade element geometry, velocities, and forces

Fig. 4 Power output versus rotor rotational speed for various wind tunnel speeds (low speed tests)

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Fig. 5 Power output versus rotor rotational speed for various wind tunnel speeds (high speed tests)

Fig. 7 Power output prediction by BEM theory as a function of rotor speed for various wind speeds

speed test for 7, 8, and 9 m/s tunnel wind speeds does not match the power output measured in the low speed test. A maximum difference of 83% between the two measurements is observed at 9 m/s, as shown in Fig. 6. 4.2 BEM Theory Results. The BEM theory is applied to the small HAWT described in Sec. 2. Each blade is divided into 20 sections of equal size along the span. A subdivision mesh with more than four elements at each region (tip and root) results in an error less than 2% in the results [14]. As the design airfoil proles for the blades were a priori unknown, a detailed investigation was performed [15] to identify the best tting blade airfoil types of the present rotor. The airfoil types are identied by considering the available geometry of the proles and by comparing the calculated integral lift and drag coefcients of the blade with cataloged airfoils. Based on this analysis a Wortmann FX 63 137 airfoil was selected for the tip region of the blade (r > 0.59 m) and NACA 6515 for the root region. The experimental aerodynamic characteristics of these airfoils, as

reported by Selig and McGranahan [16] for 1 105 Rec 5 105 and by Jacobs et al. [17] for Rec 3.1 106, respectively, are used for BEM analysis. The overall electrical and mechanical efciency of the turbine were estimated at 90% based on the typical efciency value of small HAWTs. The performance of the wind turbine can be characterized by three characteristic performance curves: power, torque, and thrust coefcients as a function of tip speed ratio. Moreover, having the power coefcient, one can calculate the power generated at each wind speed as a function of rotor speed, rpm (see Fig. 7). It is obvious that by increasing the wind speed, the power generated by the rotor increases as well. Also, it is observed that increasing the wind velocity, increases the rotor speed at which the peak value of each curve is obtained. On each curve, this peak happens at the tip speed ratio corresponding to the maximum power coefcient and thus presents the maximum possible power output at each wind speed and the related rotor speed.

Experimental and Analytical Results

Fig. 6 Experimental aerodynamic performance of the rotor for a wide range of tunnel wind speeds

Several experimental and analytical studies investigated the accuracy of the BEM theory for predicting the aerodynamic performance of large wind turbines; overall, they suggested that the performance of the BEM model for low wind speeds is accurate. Lanzafame and Messina [5] investigated the application of the BEM theory for a 10 m diameter wind turbine rotor and showed that in low wind speeds, i.e., U1 8 m/s, the experimental and the theoretical power outputs are well matched with a maximum error of 9%. Musial et al. [18] indicated that for a 10 m, three-bladed, horizontal-axis wind turbine with constant chord and zero twist along the blade, BEM predictions are in a good agreement with the measurements at low and moderate wind speeds, while at high wind speeds, due to the delayed stall effect, measurements exceed predictions. Based on the stall delay phenomenon, the angle of attack at which stall occurs is smaller for a stationary blade than a rotating blade. Figure 8 compares the experimental and theoretical power output of the rotor obtained for different wind tunnel speeds. For high wind speeds, the BEM underpredicts the rotor power output. It is expected that by applying tip loss, blockage, and stall delay corrections, the power output prediction will improve. Moreover, in the BEM theory, the three-dimensionality is limited to the downwash. In other words, it is assumed that the span-wise ow is negligible compared with the stream-wise velocity. This assumption is reasonable for large wind turbines with long, slender blades (large aspect ratio) [19]. However, Transactions of the ASME

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Since hysteresis losses at low wind speeds are high in the generator (due to frictions in the generator), rotation does not occur for U1 < 5 m/s. This is the main reason why the theory overestimates the power output at these low wind speeds. For midrange wind speeds, 5 m/s < U1 9 m/s, the BEM power prediction improves to a maximum error of approximately 17% for U1 6 m/s. Blockage corrections were applied to the analytical solution to examine the blockage effects on low speed test [15]. No signicant change in the power prediction was observed, which implies that the 21% solid blockage ratio is acceptable. 5.2 High Speed Tests. For high wind tunnel speeds, i.e., U1 > 9 m/s, the wind tunnel experimental data were compared with the analytical results. Due to the fact that solid blockage in the high speed test section is large (approximately 45%) errors are expected in the measured power output. The most notable wind tunnel blockage correction methodologies are those proposed by Glauert, Maskell, and Srensen and Mikkelsen (see Ref. [20]). The Maskell blockage correction method was originally developed for bluff bodies in closed-loop wind tunnels based on the momentum balance outside the wake of the bluff body [7]. The Glauert blockage correction [7] is based on the momentum theory and is a simple method that has been used and accepted for over 75 years; it can be applied to either the BEM theory to correct the power output prediction, or to the tunnel wind speed. Although the method introduced by Srensen and Mikkelsen models wind tunnel blockage specically for wind turbine tests, it is more complicated compared with the Glauert correction. Fitzgerald [20] evaluated the reliability of these wind tunnel blockage corrections in the case of powered propellers and suggested that the Glauert correction is the most reliable method to correct wind tunnel blockage effects. Thus, the Glauert correction was selected and applied to determine the equivalent free airspeed (U0 ), corresponding to the tunnel wind speed (U1) at which the turbine, rotating with the same angular velocity as in the wind tunnel, would produce the same torque [20]. The Glauert correction to the free stream velocity upstream of the rotor is dened as the ratio between the unperturbed and the equivalent free air speed   1 U1 CT esb p 1 U0 4 1 CT where esb Ad C (5) (4)

Fig. 8 Experimental and theoretical power output of the rotor for various tunnel wind speeds

for a small HAWT neglecting the span-wise ow, especially at low wind speeds, may lead to inaccuracy and errors in predicting the power output. 5.1 Low Speed Tests. Figure 9 compares the BEM results with the experimental results and illustrates effects of tip loss corrections and furling adjustments on the theory. At low wind speeds, the angle of attack at each section of the blade is small and less than the angle of stall. Therefore, the ow is fully attached and stall delay corrections produce only negligible changes in the rotor performance [15]. Figure 9 illustrates that applying the Prandtl correction factor for tip losses reduces the power generated by the rotor, particularly at higher wind speeds. The effect of furling is also taken into consideration by calculating the change in the area of the rotor perpendicular to the upcoming wind as a result of tilting. Overall, it is observed that the tip loss and furling corrections improve, quite signicantly, the power output prediction for tunnel wind speeds higher than 7 m/s.

Fig. 9 Comparison between experimental results and BEM theory prediction at low tunnel wind speeds

The equivalent airspeed was determined at each tunnel wind speed using the Glauert correction and implemented in the BEM theory. Figure 10 compares the experimental and analytical results. It is observed that in the range of 7 m/s U1 9 m/s, the BEM theory, considering the equivalent airspeed, overestimates the power output of the turbine. When the tunnel wind speed increases beyond 9 m/s, the discrepancy between theory and experiment increases to 16.5% at 11 m/s. Stall delay corrections were also applied to improve the BEM predictions for high wind speeds (see Ref. [15] for details). Figure 10 illustrates the effect of stall delay corrections on the BEM predictions. It is observed that by increasing the wind speed, the stall delay correction effect on the power output increases slightly. Note that, since the furling mechanism did nott work appropriately, the rotor was xed during the test in the high speed section of the wind tunnel, and thus a continuous increase of power with increasing wind speed is observed. Moreover, the relatively constant slope of the power output reveals that most of the blade sections are still in the attached ow regime, and thus, no remarkable change in the slope of the curve is observed. MAY 2012, Vol. 134 / 021013-5

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Fig. 10 Power output prediction for high tunnel wind speeds considering blockage and stall delay corrections

Fig. 12 Theoretical and experimental power curve of the rotor for a wide range of wind speeds

In Fig. 11, the experimental and theoretical power coefcients as a function of tip speed ratio are compared. It is observed that the rotor operates at tip speed ratios between 8 and 11 which are higher than the optimal tip speed ratio predicted by the BEM theory (k 5). Considering the equivalent airspeed for each tunnel wind speed and the rotational speed of the rotor at each wind speed from the experimental data, one can determine the corresponding power value from Fig. 7 and draw the analytical power curve of the wind turbine for a wide range of wind speeds. Figure 12 shows the experimental and theoretical power curves of the wind turbine as a function of the wind speed, which are corrected for the tunnel blockage, tip losses, and stall delay phenomenon. Overall, by applying these three corrections, the BEM shows acceptable predictions of the power output. The differences between the predicted and measured power are depicted in Fig. 13 for different wind speeds. Figure 13 shows that with the exception of the starting wind speeds (U1 < 6 m/s), the overall discrepancy between the theory

and measurements is less than 15% and the minimum discrepancy is 3.9% at U1 7 m/s. For low wind speeds (U1 < 4 m/s), the inefciency of the generator is responsible for the large difference between the experiment and the theory. For high wind speeds (U1 ! 13 m/s), the blockage correction is no longer valid which results in an inaccurate prediction of power by the BEM theory. Lanzafame and Messina [5] compared the BEM results with wind tunnel test results for a 10 m diameter rotor rated at 10 kW, with twisted blades and with variable chord along the blade, and reported maximum errors of the order of 9% for U1 < 11 m/s and maximum errors of the order of 5% for the range of 11 m/s U1 14 m/s in prediction of the power. It is clear that the overall prediction of the BEM for the case of the smaller wind turbine (2.2 m diameter rotor), studied herein is not as accurate as for the case of the larger wind turbine (10 m diameter) studied by Lanzafame and Messina [10]. It is most probable that the observed discrepancy is mainly due to the effect of span-wise ows. The more pronounced three-dimensionality of small wind turbines blades induces radial ows, especially for low and midrange wind speeds and it

Fig. 11 Comparison of experimental and theoretical power coefcients

Fig. 13 Percent of difference between predicted power by BEM theory and the measured power

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appears (see Fig. 13) that neglecting radial ows in theoretical analyses has a signicant impact on the results for low and midrange wind speeds and leads to considerable errors in calculations. Overall, although the BEM theory prediction for the tested small HAWT is less accurate than previously reported results for larger HAWTs, it is still within an acceptable range of accuracy, especially at a preliminary design stage. Considering the uncertainties associated with BEM prediction and wind tunnel testing, further exploration of the effect of radial ows and a more systematic assessment of blockage corrections are needed to reach a general conclusion about the accuracy of this theory for small wind turbines and to improve its predictions. Moreover, the performance of small wind turbines can be further improved by increasing the aspect ratio of the blades which, in turn, increases the rotor area and reduces the three-dimensional end effects and radial ow effects.

Conclusions

Wind turbine power generation depends mainly on the turbine design and wind resources. The process of designing a wind turbine is subject to a number of fundamental constraints, including the potential economic viability of the design. Although eld and wind tunnel tests are the most reliable ways to determine the power curve of a turbine, they are either limited in scale, repeatability, or costefciency. Desktop computational methods, such as the ones based on the BEM theory, are an inexpensive alternative to the eld and wind tunnel tests for predicting the power curves of HAWT rotors. The most important issues regarding the BEM theory are related to the evaluation of the axial and angular induction factors, curve tting of lift and drag coefcients, and benchmarking against experiments. The literature review suggests that the available experimental data on the performance of small HAWTs are insufcient to evaluate the reliability of the BEM theory in this application. There is an increase in both the number and total power output of small wind turbines and, therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the performance of various mathematical theories in predicting the power output of these small wind turbines. Herein, a small HAWT was tested in a relatively large wind tunnel, and the aerodynamic performance curves of the turbine were obtained for a wide range of wind speeds. The BEM theory was implemented to evaluate the wind turbine rotor performance mathematically. A comparison between the results from the BEM model, employing the recommended corrections, and the measured experimental data showed that the overall prediction of the theory is within an acceptable range of accuracy for preliminary design purposes. However, the BEM theory is less adequate for small HAWT performance assessment due to Reynolds number and threedimensionality effects. The main three-dimensional effects on the turbine rotor can be due to (i) separation delay at the inboard sections, (ii) radial ow and downwash effect, and (iii) tip vortex. Since the ow is attached at all the times [15] and the tip vortex effect is corrected by Prandtl tip correction, the assumption of negligible radial ow might introduce signicant errors in the theoretical analysis, especially for low and midrange wind speeds. In addition, wind tunnel testing is an important tool for small HAWT performance assessment however, due to blockage limitations, it needs to be completed by nal eld testing. It can also be inferred that simple wind tunnel blockage corrections can produce satisfactory results when applied to the wind tunnel testing of small HAWTs.

C Cd Cl CP CQ CT F FD FL FN FT P Q R Rec T U1 Urel U0 a a0 c d a k kr X u q r0 h

cross-sectional area of the wind tunnel airfoil drag coefcient airfoil lift coefcient power coefcient torque coefcient thrust coefcient Prandtl correction factor drag force lift force normal force tangential force power torque disk radius chord Reynolds number thrust tunnel wind speed relative velocity equivalent free airspeed axial induction factor angular induction factor chord length blade section angle of attack tip speed ratio local tip speed ratio angular velocity angle of relative velocity air density local solidity twist angle

References
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Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the nancial support of NSERC Wind Energy Strategic Network (WESNet).

Nomenclature
Ad rotor disk area B number of blades Journal of Solar Energy Engineering

MAY 2012, Vol. 134 / 021013-7

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