Modified Trailing Edge Impact on the Aerodynamic Performance of Wind Turbine Airfoil

Abstract

One of the most important factors affecting wind turbine performance is the airfoil. The impact of the NACA 0012 trailing edge design on airfoil performance is investigated numerically in this paper. Computational fluid dynamics calculations are used to design and simulate the airfoils. The thick trailing edge is inclined to various angles to achieve further improvement in the lift/drag ratio and lift coefficient. The results reveal that, when compared with baseline airfoil, all the designed airfoils demonstrated higher lift coefficients. The lift coefficient increases with the angle of the inclined trailing edge. The maximum lift coefficient improvement inclined airfoil is 74%. In addition, the lift/drag ratio increases with the increase of the inclined angle, and the maximum improvement ratio reaches 39.495% for the inclined airfoil with Ꝋ=15º. Any further increase in the inclined angle decreases the lift/drag ratio as a result of drag increase. This study contributes toward the design of efficient wind turbine airfoils.