Sample answer of the CFD question
The answer may vary depending upon the CFD approach
1. A wind turbine as shown in the Figure below, with the diameter of 70 m is chosen for a CFD
study. The main aim of this study is to estimate the power output from the turbine at V mean = 2-10
m/s of the wind speed. The second aim is to estimate the wakes
downstream of the rotor blades with minimum computation effort.
Make a complete plan for conducting a CFD analysis for this case.
Focus on numerical domain, mesh, boundary conditions and sequence
of measurements. Also, explain how you plan to conduct the post-
processing. Use sketches and info-graphics to illustrate your plan as
much as possible. [7]
Sample answer:
The aim of this study is to carry out a CFD investigation of a wind turbine with the diameter of 70 meters
at wind speed ranging from 2 to 10 meters. Since the wind turbine blades are periodic, one out of 3blades
can be prepared as the fluid domain. The domain contains 120-degree sector. It is planned to model
domains, stationary-rotating-stationary, so that the flow is fully developed before reaching the turbine and
a sufficient flow field is captured downstream. Figure 1 shows the fluid domain that is planned for this
study. Number 1 and 3 in the figure represents stationary domains whereas 2 represents the rotating
domain.
In this study, a steady analysis with RANS based turbulence model is planned to be carried out. The
revolution speed of the turbine and the pitch angles are not given, hence, for reducing the variables in
CFD, the simulations are performed at a constant rpm. In this case, the rpm is chosen as 20, since this is a
case of a large size wind turbine.
Figure 1: Fluid domain used in the study
Mesh
In this study, a structured hexahedral mesh is used to discretize the whole domain, including the regions
around the blade. Refined regions include the places where the velocity gradient is expected to be high,
such as around the wall of the blade, as shown in Figure 2. An O-grid technique is used to represent the
Sample answer of the CFD question
The answer may vary depending upon the CFD approach
boundary of the blade properly. The mesh independent test is carried out on the parameter of interest, i.e.
output power and efficiency in this case.
Figure 2: O-grid around the blade illustrating the refinement region
Boundary conditions
The boundary conditions include inlet air velocity of 2-10 m/s, outlet static pressure of 1 atm, wall on the
surfaces of the blade and hub and opening on the shroud region. In this case, since only one blade is
modeled, a periodic interface needs to be defined. As shown in Figure 3, these interfaces are represented
as Periodic a and Periodic b. Furthermore, interfaces between stationary and rotating domains are
represented as Interface 1 and Interface 2, both are modeled as ‘Frozen rotor’ interfaces. The sequence of
measurements include the angle of attacks of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 degree of the blade at 2, 4, 6, 8 and10
m/s. Hence, a total of 25 combinations is simulated in this study.
Outlet
Periodic b Interface 2
Opening
Interface 1
Periodic a
Inlet
Wall
Figure 3: Boundary conditions defined in the domain
Post processing
Sample answer of the CFD question
The answer may vary depending upon the CFD approach
The power output of the turbine is calculated based on the following relation:
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝜏. 𝜔
Which represents the torque on the blade (around the rotation axis) and the rotational speed of the turbine
in rad/s. Figure 4 shows a representative graph obtained from this study. Similar, it is planned to use
contours at the mid-plane of the domain along with vector plot to observe the wakes from the turbine
downstream.
Figure 4: Graph of the performance of the wind turbine at different wind speeds and angles of attack
