Aerodynamic simulation of wind turbine blade airfoil with different turbulence models

The different turbulence models have significant impacts on the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blade airfoil. A kind of wind turbine blade airfoil was applied as the research object, in order to analyze the impacts of three different turbulence models which are S-A, k-epsilon RNG, k-omega SST on the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine airfoil under different attack angles. By comparing the aerodynamic simulation results with the theoretical values of the lift coefficients, drag coefficients and the ratio of lift coefficient to drag coefficient for the forecast of best angle of attack, the effects of these three turbulence models on the blade airfoil aerodynamic performance were estimated in detail. The simulation of lift coefficient of wind turbine blade airfoil was verified with the flow field simulation of blade airfoil. A combined turbulence model, using different turbulence model for different angle of attack, was put forward. The simulation results demonstrate that, for the selected blade airfoil, using S-A turbulence model before the best attack angle and k-epsilon RNG turbulence model after the best attack angle respectively, can make the simulation of blade airfoil aerodynamic performance much more accurate than the aerodynamic performance simulation using one single turbulence model, with the acceptable iterative time and the acceptable ratio of lift coefficient to drag coefficient. Therefore, the combined turbulence model can overcome the shortcomings when using only a traditional single turbulence model to simulate the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blade airfoil, which will have a development and application value in the future.