Effect of Rain on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24084/repqj09.618Abstract
Results are presented that demonstrate that rain will have a significant effect on the output of a vertical axis wind turbine. The experiments were carried out in the climatic wind tunnel at the University of Nottingham where water was sprayed into the wind tunnel to simulate several rainfall rates. The rain had the effect of increasing the drag, slowing the rotational speed of the wind turbine and decreasing the Power for the equivalent wind speed. The increasing in the drag has the additional effect of decreasing the optimal coefficient of performance as the rainfall rate is increased. Similar studies in airfoil performance in the rain have shown that the increase in drag and decrease in lift is related to the chord length of the airfoil and so could potentially be larger for larger turbine blades. This could have an effect on the control strategy necessary for controlling wind turbine performance and will need to be studied further.