Experimental and Numerical Studies of Aerodynamic Performance and Near-Wake Propagation from a Novel Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

With the world's growing energy demand, the need for offshore wind turbine installations in water depths greater than 50 meters has become a strategic priority for the wind energy market. In deep water sites, Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), particularly with curved rotor blades, may provide more than a 20\% reduction in costs (i.e. installation and maintenance) when compared to standard HAWTs (Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines). However, VAWTs have suffered from lower performance and blade fatigue. One source of lower performance was attributed to the interactions between the downwind blades with vortices that were shed from the upwind blades (so-called "Blade-Vortex Interactions", BVIs) during normal turbine operation. To overcome this performance limitation, a novel VAWT design that decreases the BVI effects is proposed. The key concept behind this design focused on vertically shifting the position of one blade with respect to the second blade, herein named Shifted Troposkien Shape VAWT (STS-VAWT).