Flow separation on a high Reynolds number, high solidity vertical axis wind

turbine with straight and canted blades and canted blades with fences
Shawn Armstrong
*
, Andrzej Fiedler
1
, Stephen Tullis
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4L7, Canada
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 24 February 2011
Accepted 3 September 2011
Available online 21 October 2011
Keywords:
Wind turbine
VAWT
Flow visualization
Pitch
Dynamic stall
Canted
a b s t r a c t
The aerodynamics of a high solidity vertical axis wind turbine was investigated through wind tunnel
tests of a full size turbine operating at Reynolds numbers of Re 500,000 (where the power production
has been shown to be Re independent). Flow visualization using light-weight tufts attached to the inner
surface of a blade was used to gain insight on the operating aerodynamics, which is related to the
measured power performance. The tufts proved to be an effective and simple technique to observe the
ow characteristics on the large scales involved where other ow measurement techniques like particle
image velocimetry or laser Doppler velocimetry would be challenging and expensive.
Straight blades on the HeDarrieus turbine operating at peak power showed large regions of ow
separation on the upwind blade pass extending from early in the upwind pass from an azimuthal angle
q 40e50

(where the blade is moving directly upwind at q 0

) to over 60

into the downwind pass.

The effect of preset blade pitch was also investigated where a 6

leading edge toe-out pitch showed

a delay in separation initiation and a reduction in the maximum fraction of chord with ow reversal as
well as increased power performance. The overall separation behaviour of the straight blades shows the
importance of dynamic stall and the interaction of the separated vortex with the blade as mechanisms in
lift generation.
Performance and ow separation results are presented for canted blades. The ow separation
behaviour was considerably different from straight blades, with canted blades experiencing less ow
reversal on their upwind pass, and recovering attached ow before q 180

. The installation of fences on

the canted blades increased the power and reduced the blade speed ratio at which peak power occurred,
suggestive of a reduction in spanwise ow on the swept blades (so that they locally behave more like
straight blades). However, the location and amount of ow separation did not trend toward that seen
with the straight blades, but rather the fences further reduced the amount of separation.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The ability of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to operate
effectively in the presence of highly unstable, turbulent wind ow
patterns makes them ideal candidates for small scale applications
in urban environments, where erratic wind ow patterns are quite
common. Their axisymmetric nature allows for wind energy
extraction during conditions of rapidly varying wind direction, and
their base mounted generator location permits relatively easy
maintenance, making them a more suitable design for small scale
urban installations as compared with traditional horizontal axis
turbines.
The optimal operating speed of the turbine is determined by the
turbine solidity, s, or ratio of turbine blade area to swept area S. For
an HeDarreius turbine, shown schematically in Fig. 1, the solidity is
simply s Nc/D, where N is the number of blades, c the chord, and D
the turbine diameter. High solidities provide peak power at low
rotational speeds. The turbine blade speed ratio (BSR, l), is the ratio of
turbine blade speed to the nominal wind velocity, l U
blades
/U
N
, and
is analogous to the tip speed ratio of horizontal axis turbines. Low
blade speed ratios have advantages in producing low noise levels.
Experimental measurements of the power performance of
a higher solidity, low speed He Darrieus turbine have been previ-
ously reported by Bravo et al. [1] and Fiedler and Tullis [2]. This
turbine had three 3 m long blades with 400 mm NACA0015 airfoils
and a diameter of 2.5 m giving a solidity s 0.48. With such a high
solidity, the power coefcient C
p
P
out
=1
=
2
rU
2
N
S, where P
out
is
the aerodynamic power output, reached its maximum,
Cp
max
0.32, at l 1.6. This turbine was tested at wind speeds from
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: armstrs@mcmaster.ca (S. Armstrong).
1
Present address: Pratt & Whitney Canada, Mississauga, Canada.
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Renewable Energy
j ournal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ renene
0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2011.09.002
Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22
4 m/s to 16 m/s, giving chord Reynolds numbers of 200,000 to
1,230,000 while operating at peak power. Of particular note was
a Reynolds number dependence of the power coefcient data, with
a good collapse for wind speeds greater than 8 m/s (Re > 400,000),
but diminishing power coefcients at lower wind speeds and
Reynolds numbers. These trends are in line with other experi-
mental power performance measurements on high solidity VAWTs
by other researchers [3e5].
Recently, work has also been presented on VAWTs with canted
blades by Armstrong and Tullis [6]. Canted blades are straight
blades tilted at an angle to the vertical, a transformation which
angularly offsets the top and bottomends of the blade. The intent of
this modication is to mimic the wrap-around of helical blades,
while maintaining the ability to manufacture blades using planar
molds. Measurements on full scale blades showed the power
performance of canted blade to be similar to that of straight blades,
but the BSR for peak power was shifted higher to approximately
l 2.15. It is expected that these canted blades will experience all
of the complexity of the dynamic airow over straight blades, but
with additional effects due to the blade sweep and the azimuthal
displacement along the blade span. BSR is used in the present
discussion to allow a direct comparison between blade congura-
tions, since the tip speed of the canted blades is inherently higher
due to the larger tip radius. BSR is referenced where the blades
attach to the struts, which is the same radius for all blade
congurations.
Various models exist for predicting the blade forces and power
generation of Tropeskien and HeDarrieus turbines. These include
blade element based double multiple streamtube models [7] and
vortex models [8], which have shown good results for low solidity,
high BSR turbines. However, as the solidity increases and peak
power BSR decreases, the blades see increasingly larger angles of
attack (AOA). In the case of the straight bladed turbine considered
by Bravo et al. and Fiedler and Tullis, a nominal AOA based solely on
the BSR and incoming wind velocity shows a maximum of a 39

for a BSR of l 1.6. At these AOAs, the blades are dynamically

stalling, and vortex formation and shedding would play an
important role in the turbine aerodynamics.
Corrections to account for high AOAs and dynamic stall in the
double multiple streamtube model analysis have been made
[9e12]. These techniques are generally satisfactory in performance
predictions of low to medium solidity turbines which operate at
higher tip speed ratios, but their quasi-steady state foundations are
not suitable for calculations of the complex ow patterns involving
dynamic stall effects and blade-wake interaction that are prom-
inent in high solidity turbines which operate at lowtip speed ratios.
To account for the complex dynamic ow effects, computational
uid dynamics (CFD) simulations that solve the unsteady Reynolds
averaged NaviereStokes equations have been developed for both
lower solidity turbines [13e17] and higher solidity turbines
[4,18e20].
Validation of these CFD models has been based on experimental
measurements of overall power performance, and more detailed
comparison with ow visualisations and measurements. Water
tank tests were performed by Strickland et al. [8], Brochier et al.
[21] and Fujisawa and Shibuya [5]. Blockage ratios and solidities
ranged from21% to 60% and s 0.075 to s 0.33, respectively, and
one-, two- and three-bladed congurations were tested. Between
ow visualization techniques like trailing edge die injection
(Strickland) and measurement methods of laser-doppler velocim-
etry (Brochier et al.) and PIV (Fujisawa and Shibuya), the develop-
ment of vortices and their interaction with the blades into the
downwind pass were observed. Due to the size of the water tanks
and limited ow (or towing) speeds, the highest Reynolds number
achieved by Strickland was Re 40,000, Re 30,000 by Brochier
and Re 3000 by Fujisawa. These are at least and order of
magnitude lower than the approximate Reynolds number inde-
pendence limit of Re 400,000 observed by Bravo et al. [1]. Below
this Reynolds number, vortex development and shedding behav-
iours would also be expected to be Reynolds number dependent.
More recently Ferreira et al. [22,23] published PIV results of
testing a single-bladed s 0.125 turbine in a wind tunnel at
Re 50,000 and Re 70,000. The single blade had an aspect ratio
of 20 and was mounted in a 2D conguration between two rotating
discs with an in-plane blockage ratio of 32%. The PIV data focused
on the leading edge separation vortex and trailing edge shed
vorticity, showed the development of dynamic stall on the upwind
suction side of a NACA0015 airfoil, and was used to qualitatively
validate CFD models by the same authors. Additional work by
Ferreira et al. [20] involved the use of a two-bladed turbine with
a solidity of s 0.21 to achieve a Reynolds numbers of about
100,000. Limited PIV data was presented, and only for the single
BSR of l 2 at a single azimuthal angle of q 20

.
Flow visualization and PIV measurements have become useful
tools in CFD code validation for VAWTs. However, these previous
studies have been for lowor medium solidity turbines, and there is
a denite lack of data for higher Reynolds numbers, particularly for
Re >400,000 where experimentally the power curves start to show
Reynolds number independence.
In this work, an alternative ow visualization technique was
used on a high Reynolds number higher-solidity experimental H-
type VAWT. By attaching tufts to the inner blade surface (the
suction side of the blades during the upwind pass) and recording
their movement from a shaft mounted video camera, periods of
ow reversal (separation) during the blade rotation could be seen.
Both straight and canted blades were investigated over a range of
BSRs and xed blade pitches. The objectives of this paper are:
presentation of ow visualisation tuft data from the inner
blade (suction) surface for high Reynolds number straight
blades which would be of use for CFD validation,
comparison with published literature on ow structures
investigation of the ow patterns on the blades of a high
solidity turbine and its variation with the corresponding
turbine power performance (i.e. variation with BSR),
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of VAWT rotation. Note that b is negative for the
leading edge pitched outwards, toe-out, where positive b will increase the angle of
attack on the upwind pass.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 14
comparison of the ow pattern changes with modication of
blade pitch,
presentation of the ow patterns on a canted blade and
comparison with that on a straight blade, including the
modication of the canted blade ow patterns with fences.
2. Experimental methods
2.1. Airfoil and turbine
The straight bladed turbine, shown in Fig. 2, is a research version
of the Cleaneld v3.5 turbine, and was essentially the same as that
used by Bravo et al. [1] and Fiedler and Tullis [2]. It has three blades
each connected to a central shaft with two struts. The struts were
streamlined aluminum extrusions, with a thickness of 37 mm. The
airfoil used in the straight blade case has a NACA0015 prole with
a 450 mm chord that was modied (due to manufacturing limita-
tions) by rounding the trailing edge, shortening the chord to
400 mm. The blades could pivot in increments of 3

from b 12

,
leading edge inward (toe-in), to b 12

, leading edge outward

(toe-out). The turbine diameter was 2.95 mresulting in a solidity of
s 0.41. The blades were 3 m long, which gave a projected area of
8.7 m
2
, a blade aspect ratio of 7.5 and turbine aspect ratio of 1.0.
The canted blades are essentially straight blades tilted at a 40

angle to the vertical and twisted along their axes to maintain

constant pitch relative the central shaft, and have been described in
detail by Armstrong and Tullis [6]. The canted blades are shown
installed in Fig. 3. The airfoil of the canted blades has a NACA0013
prole with a 450 mmchord shortened to 420 mmby rounding the
trailing edge. This prole was based on an updated version of the
straight blades being used by the Cleaneld to facilitate a direct
comparison. A set of the new straight blades was not available for
this set of experiments. Due to the cant, the radius along the blade
varied, which resulted in solidity and blade speed ratio variations
along the blade. A variable chord was adopted to match the
resulting local solidity and local blade speed ratio. The newer
version of the straight bladed turbine had a diameter of 2.81 m, so
the canted blades were designed to have the same chord at this
diameter, which was where the struts attached. Pitch blocks were
built with pitches of b 2.5

(toe-in), 1.5

, 3.5

and 5.5

to
control the pitch of the canted blades. The height of the turbine
with canted blades was of 2.93 m. The diameter at the top and
bottom was 3.42 m where the chord was 404 mm. At the turbine
waist, the diameter was 2.43 m and the chord was 429 mm. These
dimensions resulted in an overall solidity of s 0.44.
A set of aerodynamic fences was tested due to the expected
presence of substantial spanwise ow. At low speeds, Selan and
Bendettini [24] showed that fences were effective at shifting the
aerodynamic properties of swept wings closer to those of straight
wings with little additional drag. The fences are shown to scale
with the airfoils in Fig. 4. Dimensions for the fences used in the
present tests were derived from the work of Foster [25] and Quiejo
et al. [26]. Fences were installed in horizontal planes at one-sixth
span (500 mm) intervals on the inside of the blades - the suction
side of the blade on the upwind pass.
The rotational speed of the turbine was calculated using
a proximity sensor and six equally angularly spaced pick-ups
located at the base of the generator. A large brake disc was
installed between the central shaft and the generator which
allowed for control of the turbine speed by actuating a hydraulic
brake calliper based on the error between the desired setpoint and
measured turbine speed. The calliper was mounted on horizontally
oriented pillowblock bearings and vertical bushings which allowed
it to translate tangent to and perpendicular to the brake disc
without permitting radial translation. At the extent of its limited
tangential travel, the calliper rested against a load cell, allowing
torque measurements to be taken. The generator circuit was kept
open so that no electrical power was produced and the brake disc
dissipated the mechanical rotor power not lost to drag or bearing
friction.
2.2. Testing facility and measurement procedure
Wind tunnel tests were performed at the University of Waterloo
Live Fire Research Facility, which has been the site of previous
testing [2,6]. This lowspeed facility can provide airowup to 11 m/s
using a bank of six axial vane fans arranged three across by two
high in a plenum chamber to produce a rectangular ow section
roughly 8 m wide by 5 m high. The plenum chamber is approxi-
mately 8 m long and contains two settling screens downstream of
the fans with ow straightening ducts at the chamber exit. The
testing area is a large barn-like building with walls and ceiling more
than 4 maway fromthe edge of the owand a large bay door at the
rear of the building serving as an outlet, and is essentially an open
ow tunnel. The turbine was located 8 m downstream of the
plenum exit where temporal uctuations were less than / 1 m/s
and spatial uctuations were smaller [27]. Wind speed was
measured 3 radii upstream of the turbine axis.
The blockage ratio with the turbine (for both straight and canted
blades) is about 21% based on the turbine projected area and the
local 8 mby 5 mowsection measured without the turbine present
[27]. The agreement with tests performed using the same turbine
by Bravo et al. [1] where the turbine was centrally mounted in
a large 9 m 9 m tunnel (blockage ratio 10%) was very good. The
turbine ow impedance does change with energy extraction from
the ow by the turbine, which itself changes with BSR and pitch.
The present test facility has three open sides so the streamtubes are Fig. 2. Experimental turbine with straight blades. Height is 3 m and diameter is 2.93 m
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 15
free to expand without wall constraints in three directions. Some
small blockage effects due to varying owimpedance are likely still
present and would be most noticeable when comparing between
substantially different power coefcients.
30 s data samples of load and speed were taken for each data
point shown on the power coefcient curves. The instantaneous
torque and speed were multiplied and subsequently averaged over
the sample to give the power output. To report the aerodynamic
power of the rotor, the losses must be added back to the gross
power measured at the brake disc. An extensive series of tests was
performed on the starting motor of the turbine so that an accurate
efciency curve was available. With the blades removed from the
turbine, the motor was used to drive the turbine through the entire
operating range of rotational speeds in increments of approxi-
mately 20 RPM. At each speed, the power to the motor was
measured and applied to the efciency curve to calculate the losses
due to drag and bearing friction. Depending on the conguration,
pitch adapters or pitch wedges were connected to the end of the
struts to account for their additional drag. All loss tests were con-
ducted in still air, which is not the ow encountered by the struts
during normal operation, but rather provides a more conservative,
consistent measure for the losses. Once the losses were included in
the power measurement, power coefcients were calculated by
dividing the average power output by the average instantaneous
wind power during the sample.
The magnitude of the losses relative to the rotor aerodynamic
power depended on rotational speed of the turbine and the wind
speed tested. These ranged fromabout 12% for the straight blades at
their peak power blade speed ratio for 10 m/s wind speeds to 38%
for the canted blades at their peak power blade speed ratio for 8 m/
s wind speeds. The difference in loss fraction was mostly due to the
difference in wind speeds since the absolute power output was
much higher for the 10 m/s case because of the higher wind speed.
2.3. Tufts
Arrays of bi-colour Mylar tufts were placed on the straight and
canted blades for ow visualization. The tufts were approximately
5 mmwide and 35 mmlong and were attached using clear adhesive
tape to the inside surface of the blade. The free length of the tufts
was about 30 mm. The light and exible nature of the Mylar
allowed fast response of the tufts when subjected to rapid changes
in owdirectionwhile the bi-color feature was useful in identifying
the tuft orientation, attached or reversed. The centrifugal forces on
the lightweight Mylar strands (0.03 mm thick) were very small
such that, at the highest rotational rate tested, the aerodynamic
forces on the tufts were about 10 times larger than the centrifugal
forces for a ow of 0.1 m/s, allowing the tufts to determine ow
direction for ow speeds even down to 0.1 m/s.
A Sony DCR-TRV30 video camera was mounted to the turbine
shaft facing radially outwards at the turbine blade. The eld of view
was centered approximately 500 mm below the middle of the
turbine for both blade types. For the canted blades, this corre-
sponded to the fence plane. The focus and zoomwere set to capture
the tuft behaviour as clearly as possible while still allowing features
in the background to be used as angular location references. The
camera recorded video at 30 frames per second, which resulted in
a number of frames per revolution that varied with rotational
speed. Frame by frame visual analysis was performed on still
images exported from the video. A storyboard of at least four
rotations was compiled for each blade speed ratio at each pitch. In
each still image, the number of separated tufts was counted and
divided by the total number of tufts in the array, a number which
represents the ow reversal fraction for the particular azimuthal
position. The progression of owreversal was also characterized by
Fig. 3. a) Turbine with canted blades installed where height is 2.93 m and diameter at the struts is 2.81 m, and b) the top view of the turbine showing azimuthal wrap of the blades
and non-uniform radius.
Fig. 4. Prole of the NACA0015 blade with shortened (rounded) trailing edge used on
the straight blades and the NACA0013 prole with rounded trailing edge used on the
canted blades. A fence is also shown to scale on the NACA0013 airfoil. The fences were
installed on the suction surface of the canted blades.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 16
chord position to identify where reversal began, how it propagated
and where reversed ow terminated. Centrifugal force caused the
camera to lose focus above 130 RPM, which corresponded to a blade
speed ratio of l 1.6 for 10 m/s wind speed on the straight blades.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Performance and ow reversal of straight blades
Fig. 5 shows the performance of the straight blades at various
preset pitches for 10 m/s wind speed, where, at peak power
(l 1.6) the chord Reynolds number was Re 5.0 10
5
. It can be
seen that changing the xed pitch has a pronounced effect on
power output, where changing the pitch from neutral, b 0

, to
b 6

improved performance by 15%. The blade speed ratio at

which peak power occurred changed slightly depending on the
pitch. At b 6

and b 3

, the optimal blade speed ratio was

about l 1.6 and power coefcients were C
Pmax
0.31 and
C
Pmax
0.30, respectively. For both toe-out and toe-in pitches, the
optimum blade speed ratio shifts slightly to around l 1.8.
A power performance decrease with toe-out (b 0

vs b 4

)
pitch was seen on a very lowsolidity (s 0.07) high BSR turbine by
South and Rangi [28] while Klimas and Worstell [29] observed an
increase in power output to b 2

pitch on a s 0.22 turbine,

followed by power decreases for further toe-out pitch. The expla-
nation of this effect is based on the deceleration of the owthrough
the upstream and downstream rotor passes as energy is extracted
from the wind. The AOA seen by the blades varies with the
azimuthal position, q, but also depends on the relationship between
the blade rotational velocity relative to the local wind speed (the
local instantaneous BSR). On the upwind rotor pass, the high local
wind speed relative to the constant blade velocity leads to very high
AOAs, while on the downwind pass, the much lower local wind
speed produces low AOAs for the same blade velocity. Pitching the
blades toe-out reduces the potentially excessive AOA on the
upwind pass while increasing the potentially too low AOA on the
downwind pass. A mismatch between the optimum AOAs on the
upwind and downwind passes would lead to the reduced peak
power coefcients that are clearly seen for neutral, toe-in and
excessively toe-out pitches.
However, as expected, the ow through a high solidity, low BSR
turbine is considerably more complex with vortex shedding and
subsequent blade vortex interaction seen in the tuft ow visuali-
zation. A sample of 4 still frames fromthe video footage is shown in
Fig. 6 where regions of attached and reversed ow can be seen
clearly. Fig. 7d shows the portions of the blade chord with sepa-
rated ow as a function of the azimuthal position, q, and chord
location, x/C, for the particular case of b 0

at l 1.6.Fig. 7aec
show only the fraction of blade with reversed ow at various BSRs
and azimuthal positions for pitches of b 0

, 3

and 6

. The dots
represent angles where the video was analysed, and the size of the
dots are roughly proportional to the magnitude of the error,
about /5% for separation fraction, /2

for position, and /

0.05 for blade speed ratio. The power coefcient is plotted on the
left of the separation fraction plots so that it can be related to the
ow behaviour on the blade inner surface.
For the straight blades with b 0

operating at their peak BSR of

l 1.6, reversed ow started to appear on the blade at q 60

between approximately 90% and 70% chord. The reversed ow

progressed rearward to the trailing edge and forward on the blade
to occur over almost the entire blade by q 160

. Reattachment of
the ow occurred rapidly from the trailing edge at q z200

to the
leading edge so that no reversed owwas seen by q 230

. No ow
reversal was seen on the remainder of the downwind pass of the
blade.
It is signicant that reversed ow was seen at q 180

, where
the nominal owangle of attack is a 0

, and past q 180

, where
the inner blade surface is the pressure side on the blade. This agrees
with previous ow visualization and CFD results that show the
formation of a vortex on the inner suction surface of the blade
before q 90

, its shedding and its continued presence near the

blade past q 180

, for lower solidity blades at higher BSRs.

Examination of the vorticity eld on the blade surface presented by
Ferreira et al. [23] suggests that at q 90

reversed ow was
present over the rear 85% of the chord, with reversed ow present
at the trailing edge through to and possibly beyond q 110

. At
q 121

, reversed ow was seen from about 30% chord to 90%

chord, while at q 218

it appeared as though all but the trailing

edge was experiencing reversed ow. There is then general
agreement in the reversed ow patterns with the Ferreira et al. PIV
data, where the differences can be explained by the lower solidity,
s 0.125, higher blade speed ratio, l 2, and lower Reynolds
number, Re 50,000.
As the BSR decreased, the initial appearance of reversed ow
started to occur earlier in the blade rotation, as early as q 45

for
BSRs of l 1.1 and less. The progression to almost fully separated
ow over the entire blade also occurred more rapidly. These
changes are related to the increased AOAs occurring at reduced
BSRs. For BSRs belowl 1, there was a pronounced interval of mid-
chord reattachment at approximately q 150

that led to a reduc-

tion in reversed ow fraction. The subsequent reattachment after
q 180

progressed slowly from the trailing edge to leading edge,

so the decrease in reversed ow fraction was more gradual than
that at higher BSRs. A further decrease in BSR to l 0.7 produced
a larger reattachment at about q 140

, and an even more gradual

return to fully attached ow, which only occurred at about q 300

.
This reversed ow on the downwind pass of the blade is almost
certainly due to the interaction of the blade with previously shed
vortices as seen by Brouchier et al. [21], Fujiwara and Shibuya [5]
and McLaren et al. [8].
Slight differences in the tuft patterns were seen when the blade
was pitched toe-out (which increased the power at a BSR of l 1.6).
For b 3

, the ow reversal pattern seemed to be almost the

same as at b 0

. For b 6

, the initial ow separation was seen

at about 75% chord, and the size of the separation regionprogressed
slowly to maximum of only about 65% of the chord, at which point
the ow at both the leading and trailing edges was attached. This
matches the simple model of toe-out pitch reducing the angle of
attack on the upwind pass, although the azimuthal location of
initial owreversal remained essentially unchanged. At lower BSRs
of l 1.3 and l 1.1, there was again a distinct delay in the
progression of ow reversal with increasing toe-out pitch. For an
even lower BSR of l 0.94, the b 6

case displayed momentary

Fig. 5. Power coefcient curves for straight blades at various pitches and 10 m/s wind
speed. At peak power, Re 5.0 10
5
.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 17
mid-chord reattachment at about q 130

, similar to the more

prolonged reattachment seen for b 0

at very low BSRs. The

eventual reattachment was prolonged, much like the low BSR
b 0

cases.
3.2. Performance and separation of canted blades
Fig. 8 shows the performance of canted blades at various pitches
for 8 m/s wind speed. The Reynolds number at the peak power
blade speed ratio of l 2.1 was Re 5.5 10
5
. The tests were
performed at b 2.5

, 1.5

, 3.5

and 5.5

pitch angles so
there is a large jump as no test was performed at b 0.5

.
Changing the pitch had an impact on the canted blades similar that
of the straight blades, where gains in performance were achieved
by moderately pitching the blades toe outwards. The best perfor-
mance was achieved at a pitch of b 3.5

where the power

coefcient reached C
Pmax
0.28, approximately 10% lower than
C
Pmax
0.31 achieved with the straight blades. Peak power
occurred near blade speed ratios of about l 2.1 to l 2.2,
substantially faster than the optimal blade speed ratios of l 1.6 to
l 1.8 observed for the straight blades.
For the b 1.5

case, initial ow separation appeared at

q 75

for the optimal BSR of l 2.15, and as can be seen in Fig. 9d,
started at the trailing edge and progressed forward on the blade.
Flow reversal for other pitches and BSRs are show in Fig. 9aec. The
forward progression reached about 50% chord around q 120

.
Reattachment then occurred from both the trailing edge and the
furthest forward extent of the separated region, and the ow was
fully reattached by q 180

, with the last reversed ow seen

around 80% chord. This is in contrast with the straight blade at its
optimal BSR, where separation occurred at q 60

, and the sepa-

rated ow extended well into the downwind pass (q > 180

). Most
of this behaviour is likely due to the higher peak power BSR of
l 2.15 for the canted blades than the l 1.6 for the straight
blades.
However, theowpatterns for cantedblades for BSRs froml 1.6
to l 2 were similar to those at l 2.2 except that the reversed
region extended farther forward on the blade reaching the leading
edge. Reattachment again occurred from both the trailing edge (at
about q 150

, before separation reaches the leading edge), and

later, the leading edge. The maximum separated ow percentage
reached approximately 70% of the chord at a BSR of l 1.6. At this
BSR and b 0

, the straight blades were at peak power and expe-

rienceda maximumseparationpercentage of 90%. At a BSRof l 1.6,
ow reversal was seen on the canted blades into and during the
downwind pass q > 180

, but only at the leading edge.

At lower BSRs of l 1.4 and l 1.2, ow separation was seen
substantially earlier on the upwind pass, similar to that seen on the
straight blades. However, the owwas fully reattached before 180

.
A separation region grew from and retreated back to the leading
edge during the downwind pass, similar to what was seen at l 1.6,
except that at these BSRs it was distinct from the initial trailing
edge separation due to the fully reattached ow by 180

.
It consequently appears that the initiation of separation on the
canted blades is similar to that on the straight blades; however, the
reversed owassociated with the continued interaction of the shed
vortices is less on the canted blades. It is expected that vortex
generation, shedding and subsequent interaction would be dis-
rupted to some extent by the sweep and q variation with height on
the canted blades, and also by the variation of blade speed ratio
(and solidity) with height. The recovery from reversed ow at
earlier angles is also similar to the phenomena observed by St.
Hilaire et al. [30] in testing oscillating unswept and 30

swept NACA
0012 airfoils. At low frequencies of oscillation, sweep reduced the
severity of dynamic stall by reducing the magnitude of sudden
changes in lift and pressure drag, an effect which diminished at
higher frequencies. Therefore, it appears that canting the blades
favourably altered the ow behaviour to facilitate earlier recovery
from ow separation as compared to the straight blades. Further-
more, the second separation region seen at the leading edge
Fig. 6. Sample of observed tuft patterns where a) shows no reversed ow, b) shows trailing edge reversed ow, c) shows reversed ow over the rear 50% of the chord and d) shows
reversed ow over the entire suction surface.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 18
appears to be interaction with a vortex. At BSRs below approxi-
mately l 1.6 for a pitch of b 1.5

, the vortex is completely shed

resulting in full separation recovery, followed by impingement
around q 200

. At a BSR of l 1.6, the vortex is not fully shed and

travels near the leading edge, while at BSRs of l 1.9, the vortex is
shed at mid-chord and the blade travels sufciently faster than
theconvection speed of the vortex so no interaction occurs. For all
cases, this vortex interaction was brief and merged with the
reversed ow associated with the leading edge stagnation point.
The changes in ow separation with increasing toe-out pitch
were small. At peak power, l 2.15, toe-out pitch delayed the initial
appearance of reversed ow to about q 90

for b-3.5

pitch and
about q 100

for b 5.5

pitch. Attached ow was re-

established by q 170

. The maximum amount of separated ow

decreased as the toe-out pitch was increased, being reduced from
50% of the chord for b 1.5

to 40% for b 3.5

and to 35% for

b 5.5

. At the peak power BSRs, it then appears that toe-out

pitch delayed the onset and reduced the maximum extent of ow
separation. At a BSR of l 2.48, maximum percentage of separated
ow was only 20% of the chord for b 3.5

pitch and 15% of the

chord for b 5.5

pitch, with no separation seen into the

downwind pass, q 180

.
For b 3.5

and b 5.5

, like the b 1.5

pitch case, there

was no ow reversal seen on the downwind pass until the BSR was
belowapproximately l 1.9. Again, this downwind pass separation
appeared distinct from the upwind pass ow reversal except at
BSRs around l 1.8 for these pitches as compared to l 1.6 for
b 1.5

pitch. The leading edge ow reversal progressed

Fig. 7. Reversed ow on a straight blade where a), b) and c) show the fraction of the chord experiencing reversed ow as a function azimuthal angle, q, and blade speed ratio, l.
Power coefcients are also plotted. d) shows reversed owas a function of azimuthal angle q and position along the blade chord, x/C, where values indicate the fraction of separated
tufts in a single column of the array at the specied chord location. No reversed ow was present in the white regions.
Fig. 8. Power coefcient curves for canted blades at various xed pitch angles and 8 m/
s wind speed. At a blade speed ratio of l 2.1, the chord Re 5.5 10
5
.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 19
rearwards along the blade, as for the b 1.5

pitch case, but with

maximum extents of 35% and 40% for the b 3.5

and b 5.5

toe-out pitches, respectively. The separation region then receded

back to the leading edge, and was no longer present by q 250

for
BSRs of l 1.4 to l 1.9, or q 270

for the lowest BSR, l 1.2. The

change in the extent of leading edge separation is consistent with
the movement of a pressure side stagnation point that can be
explained with simple non-vortex ow. As the toe-out pitch
increases, the angle of attack increases on the downwind pass.
Decreasing the blade speed ratio also increases the downwind pass
AOA, not just by changing the rotational turbine blade speed, but
also by reducing the power extraction efciency on the upwind
pass, allowing higher wind speeds on the downwind pass. The large
extent of separation, up to 40% of the chord on these moderately
thin airfoils, suggests that blade-vortex interactions may also be
present.
3.3. Performance of canted blades with fences
Fig. 10 shows the change in the power coefcient curve fro-
madding ve horizontally oriented fences at one-sixth span inter-
vals along the canted blades at a pitch of b 3.5

. The two key

features are the increase in power coefcient, from C
Pmax
0.27 to
C
Pmax
0.29, and the reduced blade speed ratio at which C
Pmax
was
reached, l 1.9, compared to about 2.2 for the case without fences.
Fig. 11a shows the separation plot immediately above the fence
plane for the canted blades at a pitch of b 3.5

with 5 fences
Fig. 9. Reversed ow on the canted blade where a), b) and c) show the fraction of the chord experiencing reversed ow as a function azimuthal angle, q, and blade speed ratio, l.
Power coefcients as a function of blade speed ratio are also plotted. d) shows the extent of reversed ow on the blade chord as a function of azimuthal angle, q, where values
indicate the fraction of separated tufts in a single column of the array at the specied chord location. No reversed ow was present in the white regions.
Fig. 10. Power coefcient curves for canted blades at b 3.5

pitch with (5F) and

without fences (0F) at 8 m/s wind speed. At a blade speed ratio of l 1.9, the chord
Re 5.0 10
5
.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 20
installed while Fig. 11b shows the separation immediately below
the fence. The discontinuities in the data were the result of exces-
sive light from the opening of the tunnel causing the video at those
angles to be too washed out for analysis.
There is a substantial decrease in the amount of separation with
the addition of the fences to the canted blades. As with no fences,
ow separation did not extend past q 180

, and the distinct

downwind separation was not visible at blade speed ratios of
l 1.6 or above.
The ow patterns above and belowthe fences, corresponding to
swept forward and swept aft, were different. Above the fences
(swept forward of the fence location), the maximum ow reversal
fraction at peak power (l 1.9) was about 50% of the chord. Initi-
ation of ow separation could not be determined above the fence
while below the fence it occurred at q 95

. Above the fence, the

observable separation was concentrated in the upper rear portion
of the tuft array, with no separation in front of 40% chord, except for
a small patch of about 4 tufts at 30% chord immediately above the
fence. Below the fence (swept aft of the fence location), the ow
was substantially modied by the fence, with much less ow
reversal seen. At peak power, l 1.9, practically no ow reversal
was seen, with only minor amounts of separation between q 95

and q 180

caused by a small band near the lower edge of the tuft

array that started at the trailing edge and moved forward only as far
as 50% chord. Last bit of reversal was seen at 90% chord above fence
and 80% chord below fence.
Maximum separation was less at BSRs above peak power, as
ow reversal did not progress as far forward along the chord, with
only minor reversal seen just at the trailing edge for l 2.5 both
above and below the fence. Initial separation was seen later below
the fence, at q 110

for l 2.5 as compared to q 95

for l 1.9.
At l 1.6, the maximum extent of separated ow on the upwind
pass was over 60% of the chord above the fence, and there was no
reversed ow beyond q 190

except for what appeared to be the

stagnation point visible right at the leading edge until about
q 300

. Below the fence, separation began at q 80

, with
separation seen over only 20% of the chord, and fully reattached
ow was seen by q 180

. Flow reversal progressed as far forward

as the leading edge (both above and below the fence) and was last
observed at 30% chord above the fence and right at the leading edge
below the fence. At the slowest BSR tested, l 1.2, the pattern of
ow separation was similar to the case without fences, with the
exception that the amount of separation was slightly less above the
fence and substantially less below the fence.
4. Conclusions
Flow visualization using inner blade surface tufts on an H-Dar-
rieus vertical axis wind turbine with both straight and canted
blades was performed at Reynolds numbers of over 500,000, where
power performance had been previously found to be Reynolds
number independent. The straight blades experienced ow
reversal on the inner blade surface over the wide range of
azimuthal angles while operating at their peak power blade speed
ratio of l 1.6. This owseparation, which occurred over the entire
blade chord, started early in upwind pass (q 60

) and extended
well into the downwind pass to q z 250

, where the inner blade

surface is nominally the pressure side of the airfoil. This behaviour
agreed with ow visualizations at lower solidities and much lower
Reynolds numbers as well as CFD results, which show the blade
shedding a vortex at the high angles of attack rapidly approached
before q 90

, and the blade rotation keeping the shed vortex quite

close to the blade itself. Increasing amounts of preset toe-out pitch
(to b 6

), which had been shown to increase the peak power

coefcient, were associated with a delay in the initial separation
and a decrease in the maximum fraction of the blade experiencing
ow reversal. This is in agreement with the quasi-static ow
assumptions; however, the still substantial degree of ow separa-
tion indicates that dynamic stall and vortex shedding are important
lift mechanisms.
The ow separation behaviour of canted blades was much
different than that seen on the straight blades. This is likely due to
both the sweep of the blades and the difference in peak power
blade speed ratio. Much less ow separation was noted, not just at
the peak power blade speed ratio, l 2.15, but also relative to the
straight blades at the same blade speed ratios. Separation on the
upwind pass was seen to not extend beyond q 180

. There was
little ow reversal on the downwind pass at peak power blade
speed ratios, and this appeared to be associated simply with the
location of the stagnation point on the pressure side of the blade. At
lower blade speed ratios, however, the large extent of distinct
separation at the leading edge during the downwind pass was
likely associated with blade-vortex interaction.
Fig. 11. Reversed ow on a canted blade with fences showing the fraction of the chord experiencing reversed ow as a function azimuthal angle, q, and blade speed ratio, l. Power
coefcients are also plotted. a) shows behaviour above the fence (swept forward) and b) shows behaviour below the fence (swept aft). The discontinuities in the data were the result
of excessive light from the opening of the tunnel causing the video at those angles to be too washed out for analysis.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 21
The addition of fences, which acted to impede spanwise owon
the swept blades, reduced the blade speed ratio at peak power to
about l 1.9, presumably with a ow that is more similar to the
straight blade case. However, the tuft results indicate that the
amount of ow reversal was even less than that seen on the canted
blades without fences. The owseparation behaviour on the canted
blades, particularly with fences, should be examined either with
detailed experimental measurements (i.e. PIV) or 3D CFD simula-
tions (requiring high resolution to accurately capture the dynamic
separation behaviour and the effect of the fences). The tuft data
presented here would also provide a good tool for validation of
these CFD models.
Acknowledgements
K. McLaren provided assistance with experiments. We are
grateful for the funding support of the Ontario Centres of Excel-
lence and Cleaneld Energy.
References
[1] Bravo R, Tullis S, Ziada S. Performance testing of a small scale vertical-axis
wind turbine. In: Proceedings of the 21st Canadian congress of applied
mechanics, Toronto; 2007.
[2] Fiedler A, Tullis S. Blade offset and pitch effects on a high solidity vertical axis
wind turbine. Wind Eng May 2009;33(3):237e46.
[3] Blackwell BF, Sheldahl RE, Feltz L. Wind tunnel performance data for the
Darrieus wind turbine with NACA 0012 blades. SAND76e0130. Sandia Labo-
ratories; May 1976.
[4] Howell R, QinN, Edwards J, Durrani N. Windtunnel andnumerical studyof asmall
vertical axis wind turbine. J Renewable Energy February 2010;33:412e22.
[5] Fujisawa N, Shibuya S. Observations of dynamic stall on Darrieus wind turbine
blades. J Wind Eng Ind Aerodynamics 2001;89(2):201e14.
[6] Armstrong S, Tullis S. Power performance of canted blades for a vertical axis
wind turbine. J Renewable Sustainable Energy; February 2011.
[7] Paraschivoiu I. Double-multiple streamtube model for Darrieus wind turbines.
In: Second DOE/NASA wind turbine dynamics workshop. Cleveland: USA;
February 1981. NASA CP-2185 p19e25.
[8] Strickland J, Webster B, Nguyen T. A vortex model of the Darrieus turbine: an
analytical and experimental study. J Fluids Eng 1979;101(4):500e5.
[9] Paraschivoiu I, Delclaux F. Double-multiple streamtube model with recent
improvements. AIAA J Energy MayeJune 1983;7:250e5.
[10] Migliore P, Wolfe W, Fanucci J. Flow curvature effects on Darrieus turbine
blade aerodynamics. J Energy MarcheApril 1980;4(2):49e55.
[11] Hirsch C, Mandal A. Flow curvature effect on vertical axis Darrieus wind
turbine having high chord-radius ratio. In: European wind energy conference.
Hamburg: Germany; October 22e26 1984. pp. 405e10.
[12] Mandal A, Burton J. The effects of dynamic stall and ow curvature on the
aerodynamics of Darrieus turbines applying the cascade model. Wind Eng
1994;18(6):267e82.
[13] Hansen M, Sorensen D. CFD model for vertical axis wind turbine. In: Wind
energy for the new millennum e proceedings of the European wind energy
conference Copenhagen: Denmark; 2001. pp. 485e487.
[14] Allet A, Halle S, Paraschivoiu I. Numerical simulation of dynamic stall around
an airfoil in Darrius motion. J Solar Energy Eng February 1999;121(1):69e76.
[15] Paraschivoiu I, Allet A. Aerodynamic analysis of the Darrieus wind turbines
including dynamic stall. J Propulsion Power 1988;4(5):472e7.
[16] Paraschivoiu I, Beguier C. Visualization, measurements and calculations of
dynamic stall for a similar motion of VAWT. In: Proceedings of the European
wind energy conference; 1998. Herning: Denmark.
[17] Paraschivoiu I. Wind turbine design e with Emphasis on Darrieus Concept.
Polytechnic International Press; 2002.
[18] Mclaren K, Tullis S, Ziada S., Vibration analysis of a vertical axis wind turbine
blade. In: Proceedings of the 21st Canadian congress of applied mechanics,
2007.
[19] Mclaren K, Tullis S, Ziada S. Computational uid dynamics simulation of the
aerodynamics of a high solidity, small scale vertical axis wind turbine.
Submitted to Wind Energy 2009. (Manuscript #WE-09e0114).
[20] Ferreira CJ, Bijl H, van Bussel G, van Kuik G. Simulating dynamic stall in a 2D
VAWT: modeling strategy, verication and validation with particle image
velocimetry data. J Physics Conf Ser; 2007:75. 012023.
[21] Brochier G, Fraunie P, Beguier Paraschivoiu I. Water channel experiments of
dynamic stall on Darrieus wind turbine blades. AIAA J Propulsion September-
October 1986;2(5):445e59.
[22] Ferreira CJ, van Bussel G, van Kuik G. 2D CFD simulation of dynamic stall on
a vertical axis wind turbine: verication and validation with PIV measure-
ments. In: 45th AIAA aerospace sciences meeting and exhibit/ASME wind
energy symposium, Reno; 2007. p. 16191e201.
[23] Ferreira CJ, van Bussel G, van Kuik G, Scarano F. Visualization by PIV or
dynamic stall on a vertical axis wind turbine. Exp Fluids 2009;46(1):97e108.
[24] Selan R, Bendettini A. The effects of leading-edge extensions, and trailing-
edge extension, and a fence on the static longitudinal stability of a wing-
fuselage-tail combination having a wing with 35

sweepback and an aspect

ratio of 4.5. NACA-RM-A53E12. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics;
1953.
[25] Foster G. Effects of twist and camber, fences, and horizontal-tail height on the
low-speed longitudinal stability characteristics of a wing-fuselage combina-
tion wit a 45

sweptback wing of aspect ratio 8 at a Reynolds number of

4.0 106. NACA-RM-L52J03. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics;
1952.
[26] Quiejo M, Jaquet B, Wolhart W. Wind-tunnel investigation at low speed of the
effects of chordwise wing fences and horizontal-tail position on the static
longitudinal stability characteristics of an airplane model with a 35

swept-
back wing. NACA-TR-1203. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics;
1954.
[27] Devaud C, Weisinger J, Johnson D, Weckman E. Experimental and numerical
characterization of the ow eld in the large-scale UW re research facility.
International J. Numerical Methods in Fluids June 2009;60(5):539e64.
[28] South P, Rangi R. An experimental investigation of a 12-ft diameter high-
speed vertical-axis turbine. Ottawa, Ontario. LTRLA-166: National Research
Council of Canada; April 1975.
[29] Klimas P, Worstell C. Effects of blade preset pitch/offset on curved-blade
Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine performance. SAND-81e1762. Sandia
National Laboratories; October 1981.
[30] St. Hilaire A, Carta F, Fink M, Jepson W. The inuence of sweep on the aero-
dynamic loading of an oscillating NACA 0012 airfoil.vol 1: Technical report.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA-CR-3092 1979.
S. Armstrong et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 13e22 22