Matthew M. Duquette Kenneth D.

Visser
e-mail: visser@clarkson.edu Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699 Phone: (315) 268-7687 Fax: (315) 268-6438

Numerical Implications of Solidity and Blade Number on Rotor Performance of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines
A numerical study was conducted to examine the impact of rotor solidity and blade number on the aerodynamic performance of small wind turbines. Blade element momentum theory and lifting line based wake theory were utilized to parametrically assess the effects of blade number and solidity on rotor performance. Increasing the solidity beyond what is traditionally used for electric generating wind turbines led to increased power coefcients at lower tip speed ratios, with an optimum between 3 and 4. An increase in the blade number at a given solidity also increased the maximum C p for all cases examined. The possibility of a higher aerodynamic power extraction from solidity or blade number increases could lead to a higher overall system power production. Additional advantages over current 5% to 7% solidity, high speed designs would include lower noise, lower cut-in wind speed, and less blade erosion. DOI: 10.1115/1.1629751

Introduction
Many factors play a role in the design of a wind turbine rotor, including aerodynamics, generator characteristics, blade strength and rigidity, and noise levels. Since a small wind energy systems success is largely dependent on maximizing its energy extraction, rotor aerodynamics play a critical role in the minimization of the cost of energy. Improvements in aerodynamic design would add little to the cost of the system with the potential benet of increasing power output. It should be kept in mind, however, that the total energy produced depends on maximizing the energy capture across the entire operating range of the turbine and this depends on both the behavior of the power output and the winds probability distribution. Johnson 1 presented a performance comparison of common wind turbine designs, shown in Fig. 1, characterized by power coefcient, C P versus tip speed ratio, : CP P
1 2

V3 R2 0 R/V 0

(1) (2)

According to the gure, the high speed, two blade horizontal axis wind turbine HAWT produces approximately 3 times more power than a multi-bladed farm windmill, the high-speed machine operating at tip speed ratios between 4 and 7 and the multi-bladed windmill at tip speed ratios between 0 and 2. Kenteld 2 also presented a similar comparison between a high-speed modern wind turbine and a traditional farm windmill. Two major differences between traditional windmills and modern HAWTs, apart from the respective airfoil geometries, are solidity, dened as: B BladeArea / R 2 (3)

and blade number B. Although it appears that minimizing the number of blades leads to the best turbine design, as evidenced in the present wind turbine community, and that three blades is preferred to two to minimize adverse yaw effects 3 , it has been
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS for publication in the ASME JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING. Manuscript received by the ASME Solar Energy Division, February 17, 2003; nal revision, July 11, 2003. Associate Editor: D. Berg.

shown that aerodynamic performance does increase with blade number albeit with a diminishing return 4,5 . Increasing solidity should also increase torque for a given rotational speed, thereby increasing power output. As described by Kenteld 2 , a highsolidity windmill produces much more torque at low-tip speed ratios compared to modern HAWTs. An increased solidity design should be able to start at a lower wind speed, potentially increasing total energy capture at a given wind site and making the turbine more affordable at lower speed sites. For small wind turbines in noise sensitive areas, a slow-running turbine may be preferable, since noise increases with rotational velocity. Also, blade erosion is less of an issue at slower speeds and material requirements can be relaxed. Hence, design points between slow-running windmills and high speed HAWTs may exist that would better match the requirements of a small wind turbine. The conventionally accepted Betz limit states that the maximum C P an HAWT can produce is 0.59 4 . Power coefcients of modern small, electric-generating HAWTs at rated speeds are generally no more than 0.3. High-solidity water-pumping HAWTs, which can have solidities greater than 0.35 6 , exhibit lower C P values than low-solidity, high-speed electric-generating machines. It should be noted, however, that water-pumpers often use curved plates for blades instead of true airfoils. Some high-speed machines will exhibit higher C P values and typically have 5%7% solidity, 2 or 3 blade rotors and operate at tip speed ratios, , of 5 8. Table 1 lists a sample of some modern small wind turbines. It should be noted that the C P data is presented as the quantity C P g , where g is the efciency of the electric generator. Since generator efciencies are not published by the manufacturers, they can not be accurately quantied in the table. Most operate at tip speed ratios, , of 5 or greater and employ 2 or 3 blades with a total solidity of less than 7%, similar to large, utility-scale HAWTs. The exception is the uncommon Windower DK design, which has 12 blades and 17% solidity. The Windower ranks the highest in power extraction, C P g , at its rated speed and does so with a tip speed ratio of approximately half of the next most efcient design. To quantify the effects of solidity and blade number on the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbines, a numerical study was conducted using blade element momentum and wake models. The study was divided into two parts. The rst examined the NOVEMBER 2003, Vol. 125 425

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performance of rotors designed with a blade-element based optimum design procedure. The second part considered rotors with constant-chord, untwisted blades. To provide adequate background to the results, an introduction to the numerical techniques is presented next.

Numerical Methods
It is useful to consider the physical implications of the issues presented above before conducting a numerical study, as this may help interpret the reality of the results as well as provide ideas for variables to vary or examine. The effects of blade number and solidity on rotor performance are not as straightforward as they may appear. An increase in the blade chord, for example, might be perceived at rst to increase the drag on the blade, but, depending on the associated Reynolds number increase, may decrease the drag coefcient, C D , in such a manner that there is no increase in the actual drag at all. If the result of this chord increase, which can be viewed as an increase in solidity, reduces the ideal operational tip speed ratio, the drag might actually decrease as the velocity of the blade is lower. Obviously, this would result in a decrease in the Reynolds number which could push the C D and the drag higher, depending on the airfoil characteristics. The addition of more blades to the rotor, loaded to the same degree as the initial blades, would increase the torque and so too, at rst glance, the associated power for the same rotational speed. The increased rotational effects in the wake would be detrimental to the efciency, though, as more energy is left there. The increase in blade number would obviously increase the overall rotor drag if all the blades were loaded as the initial blades were, but the impact of this is not as obvious, since a higher torque is also produced. If the blade loading were adjusted to achieve the same rotor torque loading, each blade would experience a lower loading and the tip vortex system would be changed to one with more vortices of lower strength, in general a benet for efciency of the system. As indicated by Glauert 4 , from 1-D momentum theory, the ideal turbine efciency is achieved at the highest tip speed ratios wherein the axial induction factor tends to 1/3 and the rotational components in the wake are reduced to zero. Physically this is not the case, since a lifting surface will generate a rotational vortex in the wake. However, it can be surmised that as more blades are added to the rotor, keeping overall loading on the rotor constant, the geometry tends to that of an ideal 1-D permeable disk. In reality, this would become an impermeable disk, but at the very least this suggests that an optimum power production exists between the case of no blades at all and that of an innite number of blades, both of which would produce no power at all.

Blade Element Momentum Theory. Two numerical techniques were used in this study: a blade element momentum method and a lifting line method which utilized two types of wake characterizations. The simplest and perhaps most common wind turbine analysis method is the blade element momentum method BEM proposed by Glauert 4 . Many have applied BEM to wind turbines ranging from high-solidity multi-blade water-pumping turbines, 6 to large, 2 and 3 bladed utility scale turbines 7,8 with close approximation to experimental results. A thorough explanation of BEM is available in 4 and 9 . Only a brief outline is given below. In BEM, a blade is divided into strips at radial locations with no interaction between strips. General momentum theory states that an axial ow air stream through an annulus at a given radius will be slowed axially by some factor, a, while interaction with the rotor will increase the rotational velocity by a factor, a . The general momentum solution for the differential thrust and torque are shown in Eqs. 4 and 5: dT 4 r V 2 a 1 a Fdr 0 dQ 4 r 3 V 0 a 1 a Fdr (4) (5)

Since simple momentum theory begins to break down for values of the axial induction factor, a, greater than about 0.4 9 , the term a(1 a) was replaced by (a 2 (1 2a c )a) with a c 0.2 for a c 0.4, resulting in a linear relation for a in the thrust equation 9 . In order to balance the local blade forces, shown in Fig. 2, with the momentum forces, several 2-dimensional blade element properties are established. The inow angle, , and resultant velocity at the rotor, W, are dependent on the interference factors, a and a . Forces on the blade element are determined using sectional lift and drag data for that elements airfoil at an angle of attack, , that is the difference between and the blade twist angle, . From Fig. 2, Eqs. 6 and 7 are developed. dT qB C L sin dQ qB C L cos C D cos C D sin cdr crdr (6) (7)

Combining Eqs. 4 and 5 with 6 and 7 enables a solution for a and a . Since several recursive relationships exist between the expressions, BEM is usually implemented in a convergence scheme, starting with assumed values of a and a , although a nonconvergence method was used by 6 . By summing the contributions of each annulus, the rotor thrust and torque are found. Two types of corrections are commonly applied to BEM: tip/ hub loss and nite wing theory. The tip/hub correction factor, F, is used to compensate for the presence of a hub and effects from ow near the tip, as a function of and blade number. Eqs. 8 and 9 dene the Prandtl tip loss factor and a hub loss factor, respectively, where r hub is the radial distance of the outside of the hub. F Ti p 2 arccos exp B r R 2r sin B r hub r 2r hub sin (8)

F Hub

arccos exp

(9)

Fig. 1

CP

characteristics of wind turbine designs 1

The tip loss and hub loss models can be used individually, or together as F F ti p F hub . Often, the tip loss model alone is used in describing rotors with small hubs. These corrections have shown improved accuracy when compared to experimental results and were incorporated into the present study as a single term, F, in Eqs. 4 and 5 as suggested by 4 and 6 . Finite wing theory can be used as an alternative to the Prandtl loss formulation. C D and were also modied according to Eq. 10 where C D o and o are the 2-D values from airfoil data and AR is the aspect ratio of the blade. Although these are ideal elliptic wing corrections for a minimum induced drag loading, the data Transactions of the ASME

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Table 1 Properties of selected small wind turbines Model Name Windower DK 4kW Bergey XL1 Bergey Excel 10 kW Southwest Whisper 175 Rated Power 4 kW @ 10 1 kW @ 11 10 kW @ 14 3.2 kW @ 12 m/s m/s m/s m/s Radius 1.9 m 1.25 m 3.5 m 2.5 m B 12 3 3 2 Solidity 0.170* 0.076 0.08* 0.04* CP
g

0.262 0.250 0.161 0.154

3.44 5.83 8.23 10.91

*Estimated based on geometry from published pictures. All calculations are at manufacturer rated wind speed. All data obtained
from manufacturers published information.

will be corrected in the right direction and Viterna & Corrigan 7 showed close agreement with experimental results using this method. C D C Do
o 2 CL

found using the geometry in Fig. 2. The twist distribution for an optimum design is then found from Eq. 14. Details on this method can be found in 4 and 9 . a 1 3a 4a 1 (12) (13) (14)

AR CL AR

(10) c x

8R axF sin2 1 a B C L cos C D sin x x

M axL/D

For airfoil data that was not available beyond stall, the Viterna & Corrigan 7 method of post-stall airfoil characteristics was used. Changes in lift and drag characteristics due to Reynolds number can further impact the results of a design comparison. Data collected at a given Reynolds number needs to be scaled appropriately to be used at other Reynolds numbers. For the range of Reynolds numbers used in small wind turbines (105 -107 ), Hernandez & Crespo 10 suggested that C L characteristics remain relatively unchanged while C D scales inversely with Re. Their formulation for the change in C D is shown in Eq. 11 where ReRef is the Reynolds number for which the airfoil data is reported. This relation was utilized in the current study to facilitate computations and BEM with a nite wing correction. C D C D,ReRef ReRef Re
0.2

The optimum design procedure is calculated for a given design point tip speed ratio. Glauert 4 outlined the relationship to nd the value of a that maximizes C P at a given tip speed ratio. In theory, the maximum value of C P should be at the design point tip speed ratio. Blades designed with this routine usually have nonlinear chord and twist distributions. A more detailed explanation of the blade element method and optimum design routine is available in Duquette 12 . Wake Methods. The induced velocities in the plane of the rotor can also be quantied by studying the inuences of the wake rather than through use of the general momentum theory as in BEM. Wake methods calculate the velocities induced at and around the rotor from laments of vorticity trailed as a result of changes in the spanwise loading distribution on the blade. Wake methods couple a blade modeled as a lifting line or lifting surface and a wake of laments of lumped vorticity that move aft of the rotor plane in a screw-like manner. Allowing wakes to expand freely aft of the rotor requires extensive computation, so prescribed wakes are often used for parametric design studies. In this study, the blade was discretized in the same manner as the BEM formulation, and circulation was computed at a set of collocation points using the Kutta-Joukowski relationship dened by Eq. 15. A lament of lumped vorticity was trailed from the trailing edge of the blade at the radius of each collocation point as a result of the change in loading of the blade. The velocity contribution from each trailing lament was calculated at each collocation point using the Biot-Savart relationship dened in vector form by Eq. 16.
1 2 C L Wc

(11)

It should be noted that this represents a very simplistic approach to the estimation of the drag coefcient as low Reynolds number drag behavior can be very complex 11 . For this study, two blade element BEM methods were used, BEM using the F correction factor and BEM with a nite wing correction, denoted BEMFW. Optimum Design Procedure. Glauert 4 developed a BEMbased optimum design procedure that sets the general momentum theory limit for C P as a function of tip speed ratio. Using that limit, a relationship between the interference factors at maximum C P can be dened by Eq. 12. Once the interference factors are established, Eqs. 4 and 5 are manipulated to determine the optimum chord distribution as dened by Eq. 13. The blade is set to an angle of attack that maximizes C L /C D , M axL/D , and is

(15) (16)

dv

r ds d3

Kotb & Haq 13 presented parametric equations in place of Eq. 16. When decomposing the vector equation into Cartesian coordinates, the induced velocity normal to the rotor plane and the induced velocity in the direction of rotation are declared w and v , respectively. The interference factors, a and a , shown in Fig. 2 are then dened in terms of induced velocities by Eq. 17. a w , V0 a
v R

(17)

Fig. 2 Blade element force diagram and denitions

For a rotor with multiple blades, B 1, a wake is trailed from each blade and all wake elements affect all collocation points. To reduce computation time, only a single wake need be constructed. Induced velocities are calculated for B sets of collocation points in NOVEMBER 2003, Vol. 125 427

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the rotor plane to determine the effect of multiple blades rather than constructing B wakes and a single set of collocation points. This study used two prescribed wake methods: a nonexpanding rigid-wake model RWM based on 13 and an expanding wake model EWM based partly on 10 and 14 . Although the RWM is physically unrealistic, it represents an upper performance limit to the EWM, namely that of 0% expansion. To assume that the wake does not slow down after it passes through the rotor disk will force the wake to travel downstream too quickly and signicantly reduce the velocity induced by it at the rotor disk. This creates a viscous circle within a wake model and results in increased velocities at the rotor disk. The result is a fairly consistent overprediction of power coefcients. The RWM computations also provide an upper boundary check on the BEM maximum C P results. The EWM cases were set to 10% expansion per rotation. Both RWM and EWM used the rst 10 turns of the wake in calculating induced velocities. To simplify the models, drag characteristics were modied by Eq. 10, rather than computed by a lifting line method at each iteration. For RWM, nonexpanding wake laments start at the blade and move aft of the rotor disk at a rate given by the axial velocity in the rotor plane while each lament rotates at a rate of R. In the EWM procedure, the wake is allowed to expand in a radial direction and, thus, slows in order to conserve mass ux. As with BEM, wake methods are recursive, so the RWM and EWM techniques were implemented in a convergence scheme. The wake was divided into a 1-turn near-wake section and a 9-turn far-wake section. In the near wake region, the separate vortex laments were trailed from the blades at each section. After one rotation, these were rolled up into the tip and hub vortices for the far wake. The wake was also allowed to continue expanding downstream for the EWM case. Rolling up the wake was a means to expedite computational time in a physically valid way. Both wake regions were integrated with 20-point GaussLegendre quadrature. A modied Newton scheme was used for circulation convergence. The blade circulation prole was used as the convergence criterion. When convergence was achieved, torque and thrust were computed using Eqs. 4 and 5. As noted previously, airfoil C D was modied according to Eqs. 10 and 11. A detailed explanation of the wake methods used is available in Duquette 12 . Validation With Experiment. Two rotors with published experimental data were used to test the validity of the proposed numerical methods. As an example of a high-solidity, low-speed turbine, a CWD 2740 from Rijs & Smulders 6 was used. The high-speed, low-solidity NREL combined experiment rotor with data from the NASA Ames wind tunnel 15 was also examined. All of the comparisons included BEM, BEMFW, RWM, and EWM methods. The solutions from the published BEM-based code PROPID 16 were also included for comparison. C P predicted by the above methods for the CWD 2740 is shown in Fig. 3. The RWM overpredicted experimental C P while the two-blade element methods under predicted C P . BEMFW showed the lowest C P over most of the spectrum. EWM had the closest agreement over the entire range and best predicted the 2 for BEM, maximum C P . Maximum C P occurred around RWM, and EWM and was shifted left for BEMFW. PROPID showed agreement with the wake methods at higher but underpredicted C P at lower compared to the other methods and experiment. For the NREL combined experiment rotor, shown in Fig. 4, the methods were applied to a high-speed, low-solidity turbine. The four methods showed close agreement to each other and experiment at low . The methods remained grouped through the middle of the speed range but underpredicted experimental data. The methods diverged near the point of maximum C P , with BEMFW 428 Vol. 125, NOVEMBER 2003

showing the closest prediction to experiment at high . PROPID agreed well with the proposed methods at lower values of , but overpredicted C P at high values. In summary, blade element and wake methods indicated close agreement for the case of the low-solidity rotor while the wake methods overpredicted C P and the BEMs underpredicted C P for the high-solidity case. For a multiple parameter design study, the four methods can be useful since their applicability seems to vary with the geometry. Furthermore, the methods all show similar C P - trends. While C P may be over or underpredicted at a particular point, at maximum C P does not shift signicantly between methods. The simplicity and speed of a BEM makes it a good candidate for a multi-parameter design tool, while the wake methods can be used for further analysis of design points chosen through BEM. The comparison of each analysis method with experimental data helped establish the expected applicability of each method to various designs and operating points.

Optimum Blade Design Results

A parametric numerical study was subsequently conducted using the above methods on a rotor radius of 1 m and a hub radius

Fig. 3 Numerical comparison with experimental CWD 2740 rotor data from 6

Fig. 4 Numerical comparison with experimental CER rotor data from 15

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of 0.1 m. The SG6043 airfoil was used for all blade sections due to its high C L /C D from Re 100,000 to Re 500,000. The SG6043 airfoil and its applications to wind turbines was described by 17 , and the performance characteristics of that airfoil are illustrated in Fig. 5. As mentioned previously, the Viterna & Corrigan 7 post stall correction method was used and an example of this is shown for values of Re 100000 in Fig. 5 c . All calcula-

tions were performed at a free stream wind speed of 8 m/s. Each rotor was modeled with annular strips, arranged according to a cosine distribution 12 . The number of strips was varied from 10 to 20 strips and a large difference was seen in the results from 10 to 15 strips but very little difference from 15 to 20. In light of this and the fact that previous researchers 13,14 utilized this number, a decision was made for 15 strips. The BEM-based optimum design routine was applied for a set of tip speed ratios between approximately 2 and 6, and for blade numbers of 3, 6, and 12. The points of maximum C P from the C P - curve for each of the optimum designs is shown in Fig. 6. Each point on the B 12 curve is marked with the solidity found for that optimum design. Each point on the B 3 and B 6 lines has the same solidity as the corresponding point on the B 12 line. Several interesting trends result from the analysis. For B 3, there appeared to be no optimum within the range of designs studied, although the peak appears to be leveling off at the highest tip speed ratios. Maximum C P values were observed for blade numbers of 6 and 12, with the optimum solidities of approximately 0.1 and 0.15, respectively. Due to Prandtl tip and hub losses, maximum C P increased with blade number, with up to an 18% increase in maximum C P between B 3 and B 12. The value at maximum C P for each design was not always the same between blade numbers, possibly because Re effects, given by Eq. 11, were not included in the optimum design procedure, but were included in the BEM analysis procedure. The optimum design procedure suggests that the design yielding the highest maximum C P would have a higher blade number such as 6 to 12, a solidity between 10% and 15% and a design point tip speed ratio of about 4. This a signicant departure from most two or three blade wind turbines with solidities of 3% to 8% and optimum tip speed ratios greater than 5, such as those in Table 1. However, the Windower design from Table 1 has a solidity, blade number, and optimum tip speed ratio that agree with these ndings. Optimum design analysis did show that 3-bladed wind turbines designed for tip speed ratios of 5 or greater should have solidities of less than 8%, which is consistent with the high speed designs in Table 1. Although the difference in maximum C P for the B 12 case is less than 4% between 0.05 and 0.14, from Fig. 6, the analysis indicated that for the higher blade numbers examined, increasing the solidity from 5% to approximately 1114% decreased the tip speed ratio and increased C P .

Fig. 5 Airfoil lift and drag characteristics a SG6043 polar 16, b SG6043 lift curve 16, c Post stall behavior 7

Fig. 6 Optimum Design maximum C P versus tip-speed ratio for various blade numbers BEM analysis

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Constant-Chord, Untwisted Blade Results

While the optimum design procedure provides a theoretically best design given the assumptions of BEM , small wind turbines are often manufactured with constant chord distributions and no twist for ease of construction. The blades are pitched at an angle which provides the best overall performance. Therefore, it is of interest to study the performance of constant chord, untwisted blades. Studies were conducted for constant-chord blades with solidities of 0.050.4 and blade numbers of 3 and 12. The blades were pitched at 0 to 20 deg in 1 deg increments. Figure 7 shows maximum C P versus from BEM and BEMFW analysis. Maximum C P values are shown for the pitch angle, , that produced the highest maximum C P for that given solidity and blade number. The maximum C P characteristics can be seen to be signicantly different from the optimum design analysis of Fig. 6. For B 3, BEM analysis indicated there was an optimum at about 0.15, while BEMFW showed no optimum for the solidities studied, as C P kept increasing with decreasing solidity. For B 0.25 for both BEM and 12, the optimum solidity was at

0.15 in the optimum design case. BEMFW, as compared to There was a 5% to 15% gain in maximum C P between the B 3 and B 12 cases of similar solidities. Figure 8 shows the relationship between solidity and tip speed ratio at maximum C P . For 0.05, at maximum C P was between 5.5 and 6 for both B 3 and B 12. As solidity increased, at maximum C P decreased in all cases at approximately the same rate. The BEM and BEMFW methods agreed within 0.25 in most cases. As with the optimum design case, tip speed ratio at maximum C P was a strong function of solidity but varied little with blade number. From the analysis of constant-chord, untwisted blade designs, it appeared that the design yielding the highest C P would have a high blade number, a solidity between 0.2 and 0.3, and an optimum operating point of 2.5 3.5.

Design Point Analysis

Since many of the theoretical aspects of BEM are based on assumptions such as Prandtl tip loss and general momentum theory, it is useful to compare the results with other analysis methods to conrm the ndings. Glauert 4 showed that the tip loss assumptions made by Prandtl over predict power for low blade numbers and agree closely with exact solutions for higher blade numbers. This would suggest that the difference in C P between B 3 and B 12 would increase. The wake methods do not depend on a general momentum solution or a tip/hub loss formulation so they can be used to check the ndings of BEM solutions. The wake methods computational expense makes the previous analyses difcult, since thousands of points were calculated. Hence, only selected designs chosen from BEM solutions were analyzed with RWM and EWM. Solidities of 535% were analyzed for blade numbers of 3 and 12 and the results are shown in Figs. 911. The optimum pitch angle was set according to values from the previous BEM analysis. In the case of 0.05, BEM and BEMFW were in close agreement with each other throughout the power curve while EWM indicated a much lower C P throughout most of the range of operation. RWM overpredicted C P by 10% near maximum C P compared to the BEM methods and more than 30% compared to EWM. C P was higher for B 12 for BEM, BEMFW, and RWM while EWM produced approximately the same curve as the B 3 case. All four methods were in close agreement at low and began to diverge near the point of maximum C P . For both blade number cases the optimum tip speed ratio was between 5 and 6

Fig. 7 Maximum C P versus solidity for constant chord, untwisted blades. BEM and BEMFW, 0 20 deg

Fig. 8 Effect of solidity on at maximum C P . Constant chord, untwisted blades. BEM and BEMFW, 0 20 deg

Fig. 9 C P versus for a 0.05, B 3, and b 12. Constant chord, nontwisted blades, 2 deg

0.05, B

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and the power curve was wide, showing a C P of greater than 0.25 between 4 and 8 for both blade numbers. As the solidity was increased, the curves shifted left and began 0.15, Fig. 10, RWM again overto narrow. For the solidity of predicted C P compared with BEM and BEMFW while EWM under-predicted C P over most of the range of , although EWM more closely matched the solutions from BEM methods than for the 0.05 case. All methods indicated a higher maximum C P for B 12 as well as a higher maximum C P than for either the B 3 or B 12 case of 0.05. The tip speed ratio for maximum C P shifted left, to approximately 4. The range of operation narrowed slightly compared with the lower solidity cases, with C P greater than 0.25 between approximately 2.5 and 6. A further increase in the solidity to 0.25, Fig. 11, illustrates the tip speed ratio for maximum C P decreased to approximately 3.0 and a better agreement between EWM and blade element methods. As with the 0.05 and 0.15 cases, RWM indicated the highest C P over the entire range of . In the B 12 case, all methods showed an increase in C P compared to the respective 0.15 cases. However, for B 3, the BEM methods indicated little or no increase in maximum C P .

0.35 not shown , a solidAt the highest solidity examined, ity similar to the classic water-pumping windmills such as those in 6 , there was little change in the maximum C P , compared to the 0.25 case in Fig. 11. RWM indicated the highest maximum C P and all of the methods reected a leftward shift of the power curve, with maximum C P at approximately 2.5 accompanied by a further narrowing of the proles. In general, the analysis of designs using wake methods reected the same trends as shown by BEM, namely that wind turbine with a solidity of 0.25 and a blade number of B 12 may offer a higher C P while decreasing rotational speed compared to current designs. For illustration, the projected rotor geometries from the 0.05 and 0.25 cases are depicted in Fig. 12. Notice that by changing the design from that of a typical modern HAWT top, left to the point found to have the highest power extraction bottom, right there would be little change necessary in manufacturing techniques, as the blades have a similar size. It is interesting to think that water-pumper type solidities may provide high C P values if a true airfoil, rather than the traditional curved plates, are used. Although the aerodynamic improvements of Figs. 911 indicate an increased power production for a given rotor diameter, the

Fig. 10 C P versus for a 0.15, B 3, and b 12. Constant chord, nontwisted blades, 9 deg

0.15, B

Fig. 12 Schematic of rotor geometry for 3, 12

0.05, 0.25 and B

Fig. 11 C P versus for a 0.25, B 3, and b 0.25, B 12. Constant chord, nontwisted blades, 12 deg

Fig. 13 Comparison of torque coefcient, C Q between methods and design points

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true test of the turbine design is the ability to increase the energy extracted from the ow. This depends not only on the behavior of the ambient wind conditions, but also on the ability to keep the tip speed ratio at the point of maximum C p for a range of wind speeds. The production of energy, not power, is the basis for an improved design and this aspect of the design has not been evaluated in the current study. Since energy is the power production over time, a C p curve with a higher magnitude, but narrower prole may not be as effective as a wider but lower peak prole for a particular wind probability distribution. As a nal comparison, torque coefcient, C Q : CQ CP / (18) is presented in Fig. 13 for a 3-bladed rotor with a solidity of 0.05 and a 12-bladed rotor with a solidity of 0.25. EWM and BEM solutions are shown for comparison. Note that at 2, C Q for the higher-solidity rotor was approximately 900% greater than the low solidity rotor. Higher torque at low tip speeds may aid in starting, possibly lowering the cut-in speed of a wind turbine, and thereby capturing a larger amount of energy at a given location in the long term.

BEMFW c CL CD CP CQ EWM F ti p F hub F P q Q r r Hub R RWM T v Vo w

M axL/D

Conclusions
Using blade element and wake theory, the relationship between solidity, blade number, and power characteristics was explored numerically for the SG6043 airfoil. Maximum C P varied moderately with changes in blade number and solidity. The range of tip speed ratio for maximum C P varied strongly with solidity and weakly with blade number. Higher than traditional solidities and blade numbers resulted in higher C P throughout the range of tip speed ratios studied. All of the studies showed that an increase in blade number at a given solidity increased C P at the operating point. Increasing the solidity from the conventional 5%7% to a range of 15%25% yielded higher maximum C P values while lowering at maximum C P to 2 4. Lower tip speed ratios could reduce structural requirements, blade erosion and noise levels. In addition, the high-torque characteristics of higher solidity rotors would lower cut-in speeds. The type of analysis method also strongly affected the magnitude of C P . As might have been expected, the RWM solutions overpredicted C P for all the design point cases examined. The EWM predicted the lowest C P values for low solidity cases but converged on the BEM-based solutions for higher solidities. The wake and BEM methods generally agreed on the tip speed ratio for the maximum C P point. Further investigation is necessary to determine whether such an improvement in the aerodynamics would actually increase the energy production. Factors such as the wind probability distribution and the ability of the system to maintain peak C p over a range of wind speeds will determine the real impact of a higher solidity design on the overall energy production. At the very least, this study indicates that from a theoretical aerodynamic standpoint, the multi-bladed, high solidity rotor shows several possible benets for wind turbines, bridging the gap between low solidity, high speed electric-generating HAWTs and slower, multi-bladed waterpumping HAWTs. d

Blade Element Method with Finite Wing Correction Blade chord m Sectional Lift Coefcient, C L Li f t/qcdr Sectional Drag Coefcient, C D Drag/qcdr Power Coefcient, C P P/1/2 V 3 R 2 0 Torque Coefcient, C Q C P / Expanding Wake Method Prandtl tip loss correction factor Hub loss correction factor Combined correction factor, F ti p F hub Power extracted from windstream W Dynamic Pressure, q 1/2 W 2 kg/(ms2 ) Torque kgm2 /s2 Radius of blade element or collocation point m Outer radius of hub m Radius of Rotor m Rigid Wake Method Non-Expanding Wake Thrust kgm/s2 Induced velocity in the y-direction m/s Free stream wind speed upstream of rotor m/s Induced velocity in the z-direction m/s Angle of attack degrees Angle of attack that maximizes C L /C D degrees Blade pitch angle, degrees Difference in bound circulation between control points Bound Circulation Tip Speed Ratio, R/V Total Rotor Solidity, (B BladeArea)/ R 2 Air density kg/m3 Blade twist angle degrees Rotational speed rad/s

References
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their thanks to Dr. James Tangler of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for access to the data from the combined rotor experiment.

Nomenclature
B BEM Blade Number Blade Element-Momentum Method with Prandtl tip/hub loss

432 Vol. 125, NOVEMBER 2003

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