Research of asymmetric airfoil on aerodynamic characteristics of vertical axis wind turbines

Asymmetric airfoils are commonly used in horizontal axis wind turbines, while symmetrical airfoils are currently the focal point of the researches for most vertical axis wind turbines’ airfoils studies. The purpose of this paper is to research the influence of asymmetric airfoils on the aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbines. The influence of asymmetric airfoils on the aerodynamic characteristics of vertical axis wind turbines is investigated by numerical simulation method. The symmetric airfoils are chosen as NACA0021, while the asymmetric airfoils are chosen as DU97-W-300. Single-blade, 3-blade, different tip speed ratios, and three wind speeds (7, 8, 9 m/s) are set as the parameters. The wind turbine with symmetric airfoils performed better aerodynamically at high tip speed ratios, whereas the wind turbine with asymmetric airfoils performs well at low tip speed ratios. The wind turbine with asymmetric airfoils has outstanding start ability at low wind speeds.