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Abstract

The performance of wind turbines installed in the Middle East and North Africa region is affected by dust accumulation on airfoil surface leading to change in the geometry. The objective of this work is to study the effect of particulate deposition on the aerodynamic performance of wind turbines. Flows past clean and fouled airfoil sections were simulated using a computational fluid dynamics model at various angles of attack at a constant wind speed. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are used along with shear stress transport k–ω model to investigate the flow. The sliding ratio of clean and fouled airfoils was calculated to examine the influence of deposits on the aerodynamics of the airfoil. It has been found that the percentage drop in sliding ratios ranges from 17% to 75%, and NACA 63-215 is the least sensitive to particulate accumulation and is recommended to be used in the blade design of wind turbines operating in dusty environment.

Keywords

Airfoil fouling dust accumulation wind turbines computational fluid dynamics

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Effect of surface contamination on the wind turbine performance

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