The effect of number of blades on the performance of H-Darrieus type wind turbine

Wind turbines are widely regarded as an alternative source for electrical power generation. Modern wind turbines are classified into horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) and vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) categories. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are attractive for applications in the built environment due to their ability to capture wind from different directions. One type of VAWTs is Darrieus turbine or H-type turbine. Experiments conducted in this paper aims to investigate the effect of number of blades in the performance of H-Darrieus type wind turbine. The experiments used 2, 3 and 4 blades to show rotation, torque and TSR (tip speed ratio) of wind turbine. A simulation using ANSYS 13.0 software will show the coefficient of power of wind turbine. The results of experiments showed that the number of blades rotation and torque influence the performance of wind turbine.