Design, Fabrication and Performance Test of Helical-Blade Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine at Low Tip Speed Ratio

A helical-blade vertical-axis wind turbine was designed and tested in a wind tunnel. A relatively low tip-speed ratio of 1 was targeted for usage in an urban environment at a rated wind speed of 8 m/s and a rotational speed of 160 rpm.The power coefficient and torque coefficient was calculated by a mathematical model. The Aerodynamic performance and the lift and drag of the blade with respect to the angle of attack during rotation were calculated using 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to take into account stall region. The average power output calculated by the model was 95W.The manufactured wind turbine was tested in a large closed-circuit wind tunnel, and the power outputs were measured for given wind speeds. At the design condition, the measured power output was 101.7 W, which is 5.9% higher than that of the mathematical model. This result validates the proposed design method and power estimation by the mathematical model.