Effect of pitch angle on power and hydrodynamics of a vertical axis turbine

The use of vertical-axis turbines in marine-current applications for electric energy generation is still in early developments, and one of the key factors for assessing the applicability of such technology is the power coefficient. To contribute towards the highly competitive market of renewable energy conversions, the turbine system requires good outcomes in terms of energy yield. In this scenario, one of the main challenges regarding the design process to improve the blade performance is to find the best trade-off between the maximization of the power output and the minimization of the structural loadings. In the current work, the influence of blade pitch angles on the hydrodynamics of a vertical-axis five-blade water turbine has been studied. The pitch angles from −5° to +5° were investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The simulations were validated against experimental data for the power coefficient collected in a river. Overall, a good agreement was found in terms of computed power between simulations and experiments for a wide range of tip speed ratios. The CFD model was proven to be suitable for exploratory analyses and an optimized design was found, providing a 2.3% higher power coefficient by adopting a pitch angle of +2° compared to the zero-referenced pitch angle. Besides validating with the experiment, the CFD simulations were compared with the results of a vortex model. The effect of different pitch angles on the performance prediction and on the blade and turbine loadings was also discussed. It is becoming vital to develop an understanding of the complex interaction of vertical-axis turbines, especially in tidal-current areas where there is a lack of detailed experimental data. •Numerical investigation of the influence of the blade pitch on power conversion for a VAMT.•Validation of two-dimensional CFD simulations from field-testing experimental data.•Power enhancement up to 2.3% for positive pitch angles compared to a reference zero pitch.•Significant effect on blade and turbine loadings by the fixed pitch angle.•Accuracy evaluation of numerical approaches with different fidelity level.