Abstract:
Today, growth in renewable energy is increasing and wind energy is one of the key
renewable energy sources which is helping to reduce carbon emissions and build a better
sustainable world. Developed countries and worldwide organizations are investing in
technology and industrial application development. However, extensive experiments over
wind turbines are expensive, and numerical simulations are a cheaper alternative way for
advanced analysis over wind turbines. The aerodynamic and structural properties of the
wind turbines can be analysed, validated, and optimised using CFD and FSI tools.
In this paper, the NREL Phase VI wind turbine aerodynamic and aeroelastic properties
were analysed using OpenFOAM. In addition, an arbitrary hybrid turbulence model
(VLES) was implemented and compared with the traditional RANS model. Only two
different wind speeds were used, and it was found that the RANS model gives accurate
results than VLES for low wind speed. Furthermore, the results of the VLES model can
be improved by using higher-order schemes and high-resolution mesh. One Way FSI
simulation was performed but the results were inaccurate due to the limitations of the
extended OpenFOAM version.