COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF FLOW OVER WIND TURBINE BLADES USING OPEN-SOURCE CODE

Resumo

The drag and lift coefficients are dimensionless numbers that describe the force interactions between a fluid flow and solid objects, and they are essential for designing and optimizing wind turbine blades to improve efficiency. The computational approach enables the study of different aerodynamic profiles, allowing for a detailed analysis of their behavior under various flow conditions. To investigate these coefficients, a geometric model and three-dimensional complex meshes were developed to study airflow over a wind turbine blade based on a NACA 4415 profile, with a 10° angle of attack, unit length, and chord, and a Reynolds number of 750,000. For this purpose, the OpenFOAM software was chosen, as it is a free, open-source tool dedicated to solving Computational Fluid Dynamics problems. The main result is the development of a process for conducting computer simulations of three-dimensional turbulent flows over complex geometries, specifically wind turbine blades.