Felipe Feres Ferreira

Abstract

Course: Mechanical Engineering This study focusses on the behavior displayed by the ow around a horizontal axis wind turbine using the Computational Fluid Dynamics methodology (CFD). It aims to allow technological advances in the aforementioned equipment, which in turn produces sustainable energy on a large scale. First of all, a geometry was created taking into consideration both the airfoil pro les that had been already used at wind turbines and a simpli ed model of the wind turbine hub. After that, computational meshes were created and tests were carried out in order to identify the mesh that provided the best result concerning accuracy and computational cost. The numerical method applied to solve the ow properties was the Finite Volume Method. Besides that, two-equation turbulence models were also used to obtain the results. Furthermore, the in uence of the airfoil pro le and the blade's length were evaluated. Finally, a simulation considering a transient regime was also run in order to validate the consideration of a permanent regime in the studied system. vii Sumário

Advising

Advisor: Anjos, G. R.