Power improvement of a commercial large scale vertical-axis wind turbine using plasma actuators

The present study numerically investigates the feasibility of using multiple dielectric barrier discharge multi-DBD plasma actuators inside the surface of geometry as a novel approach for active flow control over a large vertical axis wind turbine. For this reason, the plasma actuator is modeled based on Suzen Model and the results are validated. Then, a computational study is carried out on a commercial large scale vertical -axis wind turbine to examine the effect of the presence of the plasma actuator. The 530G vertical-Axis wind turbine is used as the baseline case. The plasma actuator was applied inside the surface of the blades of turbine and on all their surfaces in a sequential and simultaneous way. Plasma actuator is one of the newest devices in flow control techniques which can delay separation by inducing external momentum to the boundary layer of the flow. It is revealed that the use of multi-DBD actuators could enhance the induced velocity; this affects the pressure distribution and increases the aerodynamic torque. Consequently, an averaged power increase of 3 % was achieved. Possibility of increase in wind turbine power even in a commercial scale large turbine has been proved by flow separation control using the plasma actuation technology. In addition, the application of the plasma inside the surface of the blades will not effect on its performance.