Aerodynamic performance of a 5-m diameter Darrieus turbine

Abstract

A 5-m-diam vertical-axis wind turbine has undergone continued testing since 1976 at the Sandia National Laboratories Wind Turbine Site. The latest tests of this machine have been with extruded aluminum blades of NACA-0015 airfoil cross section. The results of these tests at several turbine rotational speeds are presented and compared with earlier test results. A performance comparison is made with a vortex/lifting line computational code. The performance of the turbine with the extruded blades met all expectations.