• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.315-320
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• 2008

This paper describes aerodynamic characteristics for the NREL(National Renewable Energy Laboratory) Phase VI rotor using the Fluent which is a commercial flow analysis tool. Aerodynamic analysis results are compared with experimental results by the NREL/NASA Ames wind tunnel tests. For three velocity cases, computed results are compared with experiment results at five spanwise positions. Computed results represented good agreement with the experimental results at low velocity. Otherwise computed results in suction side represents disagreement with the experimental results at high velocity. When interval between wind turbines is 10 times of rotor diameter, CFD research is performed to calculate the wake effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.841-847
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• 2019

Time series data of 6-component loads were computed for a horizontal axis wind turbine rotor in yawed operating conditions with both rotating and non-rotating coordinate systems fixed at a center of a rotor hub. In this study, a well-known 20 kW class of the NREL Phase VI rotor was used for a model wind turbine, and this paper focuses on the yaw moments and over-turning moments for the operating wind speed range between 6 to 25 m/s. Unsteady blade element momentum theorem was adopted to get the aerodynamic loads acting on the wind turbine rotor. Computed 6-component loads using the developed UBEM code were compared with those using the NREL FAST program. From the computed results, both yaw and over-turning moments would be basic inputs to determine not only the specification of yawing mechanism but also the design condition of foundation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.201-209
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• 2011

An unsteady RANS analysis study of the 3-D flow around the NREL Phase VI horizontal axis wind turbine(HAWT) was performed using sliding mesh approach. Two different analysis models such as rotor-only and rotor with tower/nacelle were constructed to investigate the blade/tower interaction. Analysis results for the rotor with tower/nacelle were compared with the corresponding NREL's experimental data which produced fairly good validation of the present CFD model. Comparison of flows around those two models also clearly showed the blade/tower interaction even it was small for upwind configuration. Other visualization results and integrated aerodynamic loads including torque of the blade demonstrated the effective unsteady flow simulation capability of the present CFD model.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2011

In the present study, numerical unsteady simulations of the NREL Phase VI wind turbine in downwind operation conditions were conducted to investigate rotor-tower interaction. The calculations were performed using an unstructured mesh, incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes flow solver. To capture the unsteady effects associated with the tower shadow between the rotor blades and the tower, the wind turbine was modelled including the rotor, tower, hub, and nacelle. The present results generally showed good agreements with available experimental data. At the lowest wind speed, the pressure distribution was characterized by a complete collapse of the suction peak on the blade when the blade passes through the tower wake. It was found that unsteady effects play a significant role in the response of the blades.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.55-61
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• 2008

The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS) analysis of the 3-D steady flow around the NREL Phase VI horizontal axis wind turbine(HAWT) rotor was performed. The CFD analysis results were compared with experimental data at several different wind speeds. The present CFD model shows good agreements with the experiments both at low wind speed which formed well-attache flow mostly on the upper surface of the blade, and at high wind speed which blade surface flow completely separated. However, some discrepancy occurs at the relatively high wind speeds where mixed attached and separated flow formed on the suction surface of the blade. It seems that the discrepancy is related to the onset of stall phenomena and consequently separation prediction capability of the current turbulence model. It is also found that strong span-wise flow occurs in stalled area due to the centrifugal force generated by rotation of the turbine rotor and it prevents abrupt reduction of normal force for higher wind speed than the designed value.