High-Order Large-Eddy Simulations of a Ducted Wind Turbine

TL;DR

This study uses high-order simulations to compare ducted and open-rotor wind turbines, revealing that ducted turbines outperform open rotors in thrust and power across various yaw angles.

Contribution

The paper introduces high-order flux reconstruction and sliding mesh methods to analyze ducted wind turbines, providing detailed flow visualizations and performance comparisons with open rotors.

Findings

Ducted turbines generate higher thrust and power than open rotors.

Ducted turbines maintain higher power output across all yaw angles.

Flow field analyses reveal significant differences in vorticity and velocity between configurations.

Abstract

A high-order flux reconstruction method coupled with a high-order sliding mesh method is applied to analyze the performance of a ducted wind turbine at a Reynolds number of $1.25\times 10^6$. To investigate the impacts of the duct, axial flow simulations are also performed for the corresponding open-rotor turbine. It is shown that the ducted turbine has higher thrust and power outputs than the open rotor. Vorticity and velocity fields of two configurations are also visualized and analyzed to show the differences. To evaluate the effects of yawed flows, simulations are carried out for both turbines under five different yaw angles $\gamma=0^{\circ}, \pm15^{\circ}, \pm 30^{\circ}$. The results reveal that the ducted wind turbine has higher power outputs than the open counterpart at all tested yaw angles.