Simulations of a vertical axis turbine in a channel

The second part analyses changes in turbine performance by the channel boundaries. The turbine performance increases when the channel width is decreased, although the results are below the predictions from streamtube theory, and this difference increases with decreasing channel width. It is also observed that the optimal tip speed ratio increases with decreasing channel width. By increasing the chord, which decreases the optimal tip speed ratio, the power coefficient can be increased somewhat.