Wind Tunnel Experiment for Low Wind Speed Wind Turbine Blade

Environment and green energy awareness are two main factors why this study has been carried out. This research is focused on aerodynamics study for airfoil structure modification based on NACA 0044 and NACA 0063 by using wind tunnel experiment. Aerodynamic characteristics such as lift coefficient, CL, drag coefficient, CD, lift to drag ratio and cell relative velocity has been investigated in this study. CFD simulation has been carried out at the early stage of the investigation (for NACA 0044 and NACA 0063), and a new airfoil profile had been created (0044-63) by modified the chord length and the location of maximum thickness of the airfoil by using the modified NACA Four-Digit Series. Wind tunnel experiment has been take place for three different wind speeds from 25m/s, 35m/s and 45m/s at various angles of attack from 0o to 40o with 5o incremental for the respective airfoil. The results show that the modified 0044-63 produced the better lift coefficient and this airfoil has been fabricated and tested in the wind tunnel experiment in order to validate the CFD result. This paper reports the result of aerodynamics characteristics for respective new airfoil and it shows that at angle of attack between 5 o to 15 o, this airfoil produced good lift to drag ratio value. Also, by modified the location of maximum thickness 30% to the trailing edge give the increment of lift to drag ratio produced approximately 15% and at the same time, give insignificant changes to the drag coefficient value.