Mastering Unsteady CFD of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Prepare the CFD setup by generating NACA 0015 coordinates, building the aerofoil geometry and surrounding domain in design modeler with BOIs, then save and import into workbench for meshing.

Create an airfoil from coordinates by importing a coordinate file into the design model, generating surfaces from edges, and using frozen to keep parts separate for later alignment.

Scale airfoil from 1 m to 0.4 m chord with uniform scaling in design modeler, then translate to the 25% chord aerodynamic center for meshing and CFD.

Create a wind turbine by patterning a single airfoil in a circular pattern on the xy plane, set a 120-degree angle, and generate three airfoils.

Configure three CFD domains for a vertical axis wind turbine: an inner stationary domain, a rotating middle domain around the airfoils, and an outer atmospheric domain.

Define named selections for inlet, outlet, and interfaces to assign boundary conditions across three domains in a vertical axis wind turbine cfd model.

Design body of influence regions to capture the wake around a wind turbine, using two boi zones with defined angles and symmetry, then generate and apply the refined mesh.

Master mesh generation for a complete vertical axis wind turbine in ANSYS Meshing (WB meshing), applying zero thickness geometry, body sizing and inflation, and exporting to Fluent for unsteady CFD.

Mastering unsteady CFD of vertical axis wind turbine: set up transient simulations with frame and mesh motion, define boundary conditions, ensure mesh quality, and monitor convergence.

Solve the unsteady cfd problem in fluent with proper boundary conditions and time stepping, then compare torque, cp, and power with theoretical values to validate against experimental data.

Configure velocity and vorticity contours, adjust ranges, create a vorticity animation in solution animations, and playback to export a video revealing vortex shedding from the wind turbine blade.

Import 2D geometry into space claim to generate 3D vertical axis wind turbine geometry, mesh the three blades and wake domains, and set up a steady 3D case.

Create 3d blades for a vertical axis wind turbine by building inner, middle, and outer domains. Set blade height to 3 meters and add 0.25 m extensions top and bottom.

Create three 3D domains for the turbine by subtracting inner and blade volumes from the outer domain using the combined command, then suppress parts for physics before meshing.

Explore body of influences for wake regions to refine the mesh, adjusting domain sizes from 3.5 m to 3.2–4.2 m on both sides and renaming domains for 3D CFD preps.

Rename and organize interface boundaries between middle, inner, and outer domains, assign inlet, outlet, and slip conditions, and prepare the geometry for unsteady CFD of a vertical axis wind turbine.

Set up and manage mesh interfaces in ANSYS Meshing by defining inner, middle, and outer domain interfaces, renaming and duplicating them, updating geometry, and saving the wind turbine project.

Split the leading edge into multiple parts to improve mesh quality and resolution in the leading-edge region, using the split body tool and patch-based, page-dependent meshing for Fluent export.

Learn mesh generation in ANSYS Meshing for a vertical axis wind turbine blade, including blade parting, edge sizing, patch conforming, and exporting to Fluent for CFD.

Explore simulating a 3d Darrius wind turbine with steady state frame motion in Fluent, comparing simple and coupled solvers, and refining the leading-edge mesh for large cases.