Description
One of the most important parameters for wind turbine performance is the thickness of the wing airfoil. This book presents the current information on the effects of wing thickness and the Reynolds number on the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine blade. Two wind turbine blades, namely FFA-W3-270 and FFA-W3-240 airfoils models were fabricated in UTM Aerolab. The first model, FFA-W3-240 was fabricated at the maximum thickness of 120 mm with a chord of 500 mm and a span of 800 mm. A thicker model, FFA-W3-270 with the maximum thickness of 128 mm was also fabricated at similar chord and span dimensions. The experiments were conducted in UTM Aerolab Low Speed Wind Tunnel with the maximum speed of 80 m/s. In order to obtained Reynolds numbers of 0.8 × 106 and 1.0× 106, the experiments were performed at the speeds of 25 m/s and 31.2 m/s respectively. The result has shown that a thicker wing can further delay the stall characteristics of wind turbine blade. Several other important characteristics on the effects of airfoil thickness and Reynolds are discussed in this book. We expect the outcomes of this book publication to be able to stimulate more detailed research efforts on the performance and use of other types of airfoils. Thus, the compilation of research outcomes is able to complete the source of information about various airfoils to be selected in appropriate application. We humbly encourage any suggestions or comments from readers regarding the appropriateness and presentation of the information contained in this book. In addition, all those positive comments and ideas may be applied for research purposes to a higher level.
