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The primary application of wind turbines is to extract energy from the wind. Hence, the aerodynamics is a very important aspect of wind turbines. Like many machines, there are many different types all based on different energy extraction concepts. Similarly, the aerodynamics of one wind turbine to the next can be very different.
Overall the details of the aerodynamics depend very much on the topology. There are still some fundamental concepts that apply to all turbines. Every topology has a maximum power for a given flow, and some topologies are better than others. The method used to extract power has a strong influence on this. In general all turbines can be grouped as being lift based, or drag based with the former being more efficient. The difference between these groups is the aerodynamic force that is used to extract the energy.
The most common topology is the horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT). It is a lift based wind turbine with very good performance, accordingly it is a popular for commercial applications and much research has been applied to this turbine. In the latter part of the 20th century the Darrieus wind turbine was another popular lift based alternative but is rarely used today. The Savonius wind turbine is the most common drag type turbine, despite its low efficiency it is used because it is robust and simple to build and maintain.
The governing equation for power extraction is given below:
where: P is the power, F is the force vector, and v is the velocity of the moving wind turbine part.
The force F is generated by the wind interacting with the blade. The primary focus of wind turbine aerodynamics is the magnitude and distribution of this force. The most familiar type of aerodynamic force is drag. The direction of the drag force is parallel to the relative wind. Typically, the wind turbine parts are moving, altering the flow around the part. An example of relative wind is the wind one would feel cycling on a calm day.
To extract power, the turbine part must move in the direction of the net force. In the drag force case, the relative wind speed decreases subsequently, and so does the drag force. The relative wind aspect dramatically limits the maximum power that can be extracted by a drag based wind turbine. Lift based wind turbine typically have lifting surfaces moving perpendicular to the flow. Here, the relative wind will not decrease in fact it increases with rotor speed. Thus the maximum power limits of these machines are much higher than drag based machines.
