Numerical investigation of wind turbine airfoils under clean and dusty air conditions

The focus of research in this paper is on numerical simulation of airflow around wind turbine airfoils (S809, S814 and S1210) under both clean and dusty air conditions by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The physical geometries of the airfoils and the meshing processes are completed in the ANSYS Mesh package ICEM. The simulations and post-processing are done using ANSYS FLUENT. For cases of clean air condition, Spalart–Allmaras (SA), realizable k-ε and Wray-Agarwal (WA) turbulence models are employed in the calculations. The results are compared with the experimental data for validation. For dusty air condition, simulation of the two-phase flow is conducted using the discrete phase model (DPM) for various concentrations of dust particles using the realizable k-ε model and WA turbulence model. The results are compared with the clean air simulations to illustrate the effect of dust contamination on the aerodynamic performance of the airfoils. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on how several factors influence the aerodynamic performance of the airfoils and suggestions are made to improve the wind energy conversion efficiency of airfoils under clean and dusty air conditions.