Numerical Investigation on the Effect of Roughness on the Performance of Wind Turbine Airfoil

The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the influence of the roughness on a wind turbine profile NACA 63-430 performance using Fluent code. Thus, numerical investigation was carried out using the SST k-ω turbulence model to study incompressible viscous flow passed around an aerodynamic wind turbine (of smooth and rough surface conditions). The smooth surface is used to understand the phenomenon of flows around obstacles then the rough surface is investigated. Aerodynamic coefficients are simulated. Numerical results are in good agreement with experimental data. In addition, results indicate that the increase in the height of roughness affects negatively the aerodynamic performances. Results show also that there is a critical value of roughness height beyond which the variation is clearly slow.