Aerodynamic Analysis of an H-Type VAWT Rotor for Different Symmetrical NACA 00xx Airfoils

Small-scale wind turbines, in particular VAWTs, are gaining in popularity in recent time. They provide, for example, omnidirectional wind power, and relatively easy installation. In this study, an H-type VAWT rotor (Known as H-Darrieus) was investigated numerically in order to compare four different symmetrical NACA 00xx blade airfoil profiles (NACA 0012, 0015, 0018 and 0021). CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) analyses were performed in ANSYS Fluent software, utilizing the Realizable k-epsilon turbulence model. The analysis included calculations of torque, lift and drag coefficients. Simulation results indicate that the H-type rotor with a NACA 0021 airfoil profile has the best aerodynamic performance.