Analysis on the influence of Turbulence model changes to aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbine

A two dimensional model of vertical axis wind turbine was established in this paper, then software FLUENT and algorithm SIMPLEC were used, combined with the sliding grid technology, the two dimensional unsteady flow field of the vertical axis wind turbine was simulated numerically for different turbulence models. The results showed that the influence of different turbulence models on the velocity field is less, on the pressure field is relatively large, and on the value of the total torque is much larger. The gradient of the velocity and pressure around the wind turbine's blade was apparent. The velocity field and pressure field of the computational domain changed at different time. There would be a narrow region of the velocity wake within the certain range between the wind turbine's rotation part and the down stream's static part. At the constant speed of the wind and rotation, the total torque of the vertical axis wind turbine would change periodically. The calculation results provide reference to the design of the vertical axis wind turbine in engineering.