The Influence of Windshield on Aerodynamic Performance of VAWT

In this paper, the reason is analyzed that the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) is always with low efficiency, on the basis that a new type of VAWT with windshield is proposed. Geometry of windshield has great influence on aerodynamic performance. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique is introduced to investigate its aerodynamic performance. The results indicate that the new type of VAWT can smooth away the defects of the traditional VAWT and hope to improve its efficiency. Optimum values of the inclination angle β between the bottom of windshield and x axis giving highest values of the torque, have been systematically researched, leading to: β=30º±5º.