The effect of airfoil type and wind speed on HAWT wind turbine performance using QBlade software

Abstract

Energy transition is critical in the context of the current global climate situation. It is also important for Indonesia to achieve Sustainable Development in the Clean and Affordable Energy sector; given that the country’s primary energy mix is still dominated by fossil energy, which accounts for around 90% of energy production. Wind is a new renewable energy that can be utilized to produce electrical energy through energy conversion. In addition, wind power is a type of renewable energy that has the lowest price compared to other types. This study aims to determine the characteristics of the selected airfoil types, including; NACA 2412, NACA 4412, NACA 6409 and SG6043. These characteristics included lift and drag coefficient. The BEM (Blade Element Momentum) method approach was used to obtain the performance parameter values of the airfoil and wind turbine, which include; lift and drag coefficient, lift-to-drag ratio, power coefficient, torque coefficient, turbine rotation, and power with variations ranging from angle of attack, tip speed ratio and wind speed. The results obtained for the highest lift coefficient value produced by SG6043 airfoil of 1.838 at an angle of attack of 16 °, and the lowest value produced by NACA 2412 of 1.529 at an angle of attack of 16 °. For the drag coefficient value, all types of airfoils produced values that increased as the angle of attack increased. Then, the highest power coefficient value produced by the SG6043 airfoil of 0.496 at TSR 5, and the lowest value produced by the NACA 6409 airfoil of 0.481 at TSR 5. Then, the power generated was based on the results of the power coefficient, where the SG6043 airfoil produced the greatest power for each wind speed used, and the NACA 6409 airfoil produced the lowest power. From the results of this study, it can also be concluded that the SG6043 airfoil produced the best performance compared to other types used.