Numerical Study on the Power Efficiency and Flow Characteristics of a New Type of Wind Energy Collection Device

The increased velocity (Invelox) wind turbine system is a novel wind energy collection device. This system can collect and accelerate the air flow through a funnel and a Venturi tube. However, the efficiency of this system is relatively low under some wind directions. To improve the aerodynamic performance of Invelox, a straight-through layout with a windshield was proposed. The flow field of the improved design was studied by applying Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and was compared with that in the original configuration. Numerical results show that when the Invelox exit is facing the incoming wind, the ratio of the average velocity inside the Venturi tube to the incoming wind speed, i.e., the speed ratio, will drop sharply, and even the airflow will push back. The improved layout can eliminate the sensitivity of incoming wind direction to aerodynamic characteristics. The windshield can effectively reduce the interference of incoming air to the outlet air, making the speed ratio increase by about 42%. Different wind profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer are used in the boundary of the flow domain as the incoming flow wind. With the increase in the wind profile index, the speed ratio of the Invelox system will gradually decrease.