LOW-FREQUENCY NOISE PREDICTION OF VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINES

Abstract

A first study is reported of the influence of unsteady flow on the aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of vertical axis wind turbines by numerical simulation. The combination of aerodynamic predictions with a discrete vortex method and aeroacoustic predictions based on Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation is used to achieve this goal. The numerical results show that unsteady flow of the turbine has a significant influence on the turbine aerodynamics and can lead to a decrease in generated noise as compared to the conventional horizontal axis wind turbine at the similar aerodynamic performance.