Vertical Axis Wind Turbine performance prediction for low wind speed environment

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine is the most favorable for urban wind turbine integration in future smart grid as they do not suffer from frequent change in wind direction, can simply integrate with building architecture, and have better response in turbulence wind flow which is common in urban areas. This work contributes to the development of aerodynamic model for studying Vertical Axis Wind Turbine for low speed environment. Based on the available wind speed at Masdar City (24.4202° N, 54.6132° E) the Double Multiple Stream Tube model (DMST) was developed to predict the performance of small scale fixed pitch VAWT using NACA0015 and NACA0018 airfoils. Numerical simulation is conducted for three-dimensional unsteady flow around the same VAWT model. Comparison of the analytical results with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation has been performed. Both the CFD and DMST results have shown minimum and/or negative torque and performance at lower tip speed ratios for the modeled turbine, which implies the inability of turbine to self start.