Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Wind Turbine Blade at Various Angles of Attack and Different Reynolds Number

In present work an attempt is made to investigate the Lift and Drag forces for different Reynolds number and angle of attack for wind turbine blade. In present work NACA 0012 airfoil profile is considered for analysis of wind turbine bladeThe Lift and Drag forces are calculated at different angle of attack varying from 0 to 800 for Reynolds number from 10,000 to 800000 by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis.The validations of the present work are done by comparing the results obtained from analysis with experimental results obtained by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) energy report. It is observed that results obtained by present CFD analysis are comparatively closely matching with results published by SNL energy report.With the validated CFD method, the investigation of "C-L and C-D values" for lower Reynolds number, 1000 and 5000, has been carried out. The values of C-L and C-D at lower Reynolds number is much important in analysis of Darrieus and horizontal axis type of wind turbine blade, still it these values are not available from the literature reviewed. From CFD analysis it is concluded that as Reynolds number increase lift forces and drag forces increases. NACA 0012 provides maximum lift and drag at higher Reynolds number. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.