Design of airfoils and the simulation of dynamic stall of horizontal axis wind turbines

The aerodynamic design of horizontal wind turbine airfoils using XFOIL software based on the referenced airfoils was presented. The CFD simulations showed that the design airfoils not only are better than their referenced airfoils but meet the design expections. Because the performance of the wind turbine blade in the dynamic stall is complicated, the FLUENT software has been employed with user defined functions to simulate one of the airfoil in dynamic stall process. The birth, development and break off of edddies were investigated. The lift and drag performance of airfoil in steady state and dynamic stall conditions were compared. Suggestions have been proposed to improve the design process and performance of the turbine considering the stall effects.