Abstract:
This research work has been carried out to study the aerodynamic characteristics and
to analyze the effect on an equally spaced vertical axis four, five and six bladed vane
type rotor. The aerodynamic characteristics i.e. torque coefficient, drag coefficient
etc. of vertical axis vane type rotor have been studied in this present research work by
measuring the pressure distribution on the blade surfaces at various rotor angles. The
experiments have been carried out at a Reynolds number of 1.65 x 105 in a uniform
flow jet produced by an open circuit wind tunnel.
The pressure measurements have been made at 8 tapping points on each blade of the
vane rotors. Pressure on the convex and concave surfaces have been measured for
every 100 interval of rotor angle up to 3600 angle of rotation. The data obtained
experimentally has presented in terms of non-dimensional coefficients. To calculate
drag force and torque in non-dimensional form, computer based software has been
used and the output have been subsequently plotted and analyzed. Aerodynamic
characteristics on individual and group of four, five, six blades have also been
determined in the present work.
A quasi-steady approach has been applied for studying the dynamic performance of
the rotor at different rotor angle using the static drag and torque coefficients. Power
coefficient versus tip speed ratio curve for four, five and six bladed vane type rotor
has also been drawn. Power coefficient versus tip speed ratio of the present
measurement and the previous researcher's works has plotted on the same graph for
comparison. This method results in a reasonable agreement with the previous
measurement.
