Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of blade number on the aerodynamic performance of a small-scale horizontal axis wind turbine

This study presents experimental and numerical investigation for the effect of number blade (solidity) on power thrust coefficients a small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine HAWT. An set- up was installed rotors with different blades, i.e. three, five six, at tip speed ratios, in closed-circuit open-test section tunnel. The obtained results from CFD simulations were performed to compare data measurements. In addition, there is lack information presented rotor flow field HAWT like vertical axis VAWT. Therefore, current extends solidity using calculation. simulation steady-RANS method. SST k-ω turbulence model used represent characteristics. It found that decreasing blades (which makes less sensitive change ratio) 3 configuration has maximum coefficient respect 5 6 turbines, higher by around 2 4 percent respectively.