Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Blade Profile of a Darrieus Hydrokinetic Turbine

Darrieus based turbines have been used since decades for wind power generation. Nowadays, peoples are paying more attention toward the use of this turbine to harness the hydrokinetic potential. The profile of the blade is the main parameter to decide the power output of Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine. Therefore, an attempt has been made to select a suitable blade profile for Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine in order to enhance the power output. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based numerical analysis has been carried out in a commercial available software (ANSYS Fluent (v.18.1)). Four different blade profiles (two symmetrical and two unsymmetrical) namely NACA 0018, NACA 0010, S 9000 and S 1046 are selected for comparative study. 2D Numerical investigations are carried out around the Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine rotor and SST k-ω turbulence model has been used for the solution of Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The fluid flow distributions of pressure and velocity around the turbine blades corresponding to each profile is analyzed and discussed. Based on the numerical analysis, it is concluded that un-symmetrical S-1046 blade profile is found to be the superior airfoil in terms of power coefficient and self-starting capability.