Numerical Analysis of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Wind mills are being used by humans from a long time. Now they are widely used for power generation all around the world. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) are less efficient because of their shape and rotational efficiency. Various researchers have studied them for improving design and performance but there is very small data available on selecting the turbulence model for the study. The numerical analysis in this study employed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using Ansys Fluent 19.2, with the use of two turbulence models: SST K-omega and RNG K-epsilon. The numerical analysis in this study was used to determine the drag force, lift force, and torque, which were later validated against experimental results. The results indicated that the k-omega SST turbulence model is the most appropriate for the study.