Simulation of flow fields around wind turbine blade based on chimera-grid methodology

A new numerical simulation method has been developed to simulate the flow field around wind turbines using RANS equations coupled with Baldwin-Lomax algebraic turbulence model. The improved LU-SGS scheme is utilized for time integral. Chimera-grid methodology is used to effectively capture the viscous effect near a propeller blade and implement the periodic boundary condition. The new method is applied to simulate the flow field around the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Phase VI horizontal axis wind turbine blade. The chordwise pressure coefficients at 2 spanwise blade stations agree well with the experiment and reference data that proves the method introduced has the capability of vortex capturing.