Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

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Original article

Numerical investigation of a novel contra-rotating vertical axis wind turbine T

a,⁎ b b b
Djamal Hissein Didane , Nurhayati Rosly , Mohd Fadhli Zulkafli , Syariful Syafiq Shamsudin
a
Department of Energy and Thermofluid Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) 86400 Parit
Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
b
Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) 86400 Parit Raja, Batu
Pahat, Johor, Malaysia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Darrieus H-rotor has gained much interest in the last few decades as among the reliable devices for wind energy
Aerodynamic performance conversion techniques for their relatively simple structure and aerodynamic performance. This study presents a
Contra-rotating design numerical investigation of a novel vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) with a contra-rotating concept. The aim is
VAWT to reveal the effectiveness of this concept on enhancing the performance of the turbine as it has yet to be applied
CFD
to a VAWT system. The simulations were performed using three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) models based on K-omega shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. This computational study covers
a wide range of simulation work including a parametric study based on the axial distance between the two rotors
and rotor aspect ratio. It was found that the new concept works more efficiently and therefore the performance
of the turbine has been improved significantly. The system was capable of producing more than double of torque
coefficient compared to a single-rotor system of a similar type. The results also indicate that smaller axial
distance tends to enhance the performance output of the system relatively better compared to a larger distance.
In terms of rotor aspect ratio, bigger aspect ratio generated the highest amount of power.

Introduction
Currently, there are typically two main trends stand out towards
wind energy generation mechanism. The first one is being established
predominantly in developed countries where a trend towards offshore
wind energy harvesting is taking place. This is in a response to the
emerging needs concerning/pertaining the replacement of the con-
ventional power plants to nearly 100% renewable energy-based sources
in the coming few decades. While the other is largely found in devel-
oping countries where wind energy is yet to be fully regarded as a
source of reliable energy. In the latter case, the trend is pertaining to the
development of a low-speed wind turbine (LSWT) due to the lower
strength of the wind in most of these regions. Particularly, the equa-
torial regions, where unlike solar energy, the strength of the wind de-
creases as one move towards the equator [1,2].
Furthermore, while there is an urging need to the development of
large-scale wind farms in order to meet the global demands for energy,
several studies indicated that large-scale wind farms lead to a sig-
nificant impact on climate conditions such as surface warming. Thus,
small-scale wind energy converters are utilized instead, as they have
relatively fewer effects on climate condition at the same time are able to
produce a sufficient amount of power for our demotic needs [3]. Small-
scale wind turbines are useful particularly at sites where the grid con-
nection is not available such as the rural scattered areas or in some of
the developing countries where incessant power outage is high [3,4].
However, the main problems that limit the progress and utilization of
the small-scale wind turbines include high initial cost involved, the unit
cost per kWh, optimum site selection, unstable wind speed and direc-
tion, aerodynamic noise radiation to the nearby surrounding environ-
ment and low efficiency [3,5].
Today, two typical designs of wind energy converters exist, based on
their axis of rotation as horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) and
vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). Although the HAWT is more effi-
cient than the VAWT, both types are utilized to harvest wind energy
effectively. A wind turbine with vertical-axis rotation is more suitable
for application in the urban environment owing to its ability to operate
in a lower wind speed range compared to the HAWT, turbulent friendly
character and capability to accommodate wind from any direction
[6,7]. The two prominent designs of VAWT are the Darrieus (lift force
driven) wind turbine and the Savonius (drag force driven) wind turbine.
The most exploited design choice for VAWT is the H-shape Darrieus
configuration. This is due to the fact that the entire blade can take

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: djamal@uthm.edu.my (D.H. Didane), nurhayati@uthm.edu.my (N. Rosly), fadhli@uthm.edu.my (M.F. Zulkafli),
syafiq@uthm.edu.my (S.S. Shamsudin).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2018.11.006
Received 26 May 2018; Received in revised form 21 November 2018; Accepted 23 November 2018
2213-1388/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D.H. Didane et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

Nomenclature τ Shear stress [N/m2]

μ Fluid viscosity [kg/(s.m)]
Acronyms v Kinematic viscosity [m2/s]
ω Specific Turbulence Dissipation Rate[s−1]
CFD Computational fluid dynamic
CRWT Counter-rotating wind turbine Latin symbols
HAWT Horizontal axis wind turbine
NACA National Advisory Committee For Aeronautics e Internal energy [J]
PVC Polyvinyl chloride f Body force [N]
RANS Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes k Turbulence kinetic energy [m2 s−2]
RPM Revolution per minute [N] P Pressure [N/m2]
SRWT Single-rotor wind turbine q̇ Heat flux [W/m2]
SST Shear Stress Transport ρ Air density [kg/m3]
VAWT Vertical axis wind turbine ūi Mean velocity [m/s]
t Time [s]
Greek symbols

ε Turbulence Dissipation Rate [m2 s−3]

advantage of the maximum rotational radius and the possibility of a
high chord to radius ratios, in order to ensure suitable Reynolds num-
bers on the airfoils [8].
However, although the Darrieus VAWT was invented as early as
1931, a genuine interest of regarding it as an alternative machine of
harvesting wind energy has just emerged in the last two couples of
decades [9]. The current evolving research on VAWT could mainly be
attributed to the new discoveries that a small-scale VAWT could be
more favorable and perform better in low wind speed regimes [7].
Given that it embodies several advantages over its counterpart pro-
peller type; i.e. HAWT in terms of ability to cope well in high turbulent
and low wind speed areas. In addition, emission of low noise due to the
lower rotational speed and simple in terms of design and fabrication
particularly the symmetrical H-type blade are among the attractive
features for this wind turbine [10–15].
While there exists numerous techniques to harvest wind energy, the
current study seeks to adopt the counter-rotating technology (Fig. 1)
while harnessing the kinetic energy from the air. One of the advantages
of this system is more energy could be generated compared to a single-
rotor wind turbine (SRWT) [16–18].
Furthermore, the intended purpose and arrangement of the two
rotors in the current configuration is also different from the existing
counter rotating HAWT. In the current condition, it is not intended to
harness the energy at the wake but to allow the bottom rotor to rotate
the stator in an opposite direction of the shaft using the top rotor so that
more relative speed could be acquired which will result in more energy
output due to this increased rotation.
Over the years, in an effort to increase the efficiency of wind tur-
bines, the counter-rotating concept received wide applications in wind
turbines with horizontal axis and just starting to take a return in wind
turbines with vertical axis. Existing literature indicated that a counter-
rotating wind turbine is able to improve the performance of a single-
rotor wind turbine dramatically with efficiency that can reach up to
44% more power in HAWTs [16,19–22]. Such tremendous improve-
ment comes as a result of the effectiveness of this technique to extract
the escaped wind from the front rotor in HAWTs given that a wind
turbine can only extract about one third of the existing energy. In terms

Counter-rotating design

The term counter-rotating or contra-rotating as in Fig. 1 is defined

as a system where two rotors spin in opposite direction to each other;
one clockwise and the other counter-clockwise about the same axis
[16]. The application of this concept is currently found in HAWT only
and yet to be applied to a VAWT system. This is largely owed to the fact
that the concept typically requires two generators and two shafts or one
contra-rotating generator and two shafts which are not an issue in terms
of installation in HAWT. However, it is quite a challenge to bring to-
gether these aforementioned pieces of equipment and install them in
VAWT due to the operation of this turbine is on the vertical axis.
As such, this study provides an innovative technique to solve this
problem by allowing the generator itself to rotate in one direction with
the help of one rotor, while the shaft and the second rotor to rotate in
opposite direction as in Fig. 1. The rotation of the bottom rotor and the
generator is fixed with a unidirectional bearing. This is to ensure the
bottom rotor spin in a clockwise direction. Meanwhile, the top rotor is
constrained to rotate in a counterclockwise direction with also the help
of a unidirectional bearing as well. Moreover, three semicircle PVCs are
installed at each rotor in order to help the blade to self-start as shown in
Fig. 1. Thus, unlike the counter-rotating HAWT, the present design uses
only a single generator and a single shaft while improving the perfor-
mance of the system. Fig. 1. Proposed counter rotating VAWT model.

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D.H. Didane et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

of vertical axis counter-rotating wind turbine (CRWT), a recent study governing equations for this current model and the finite control vo-
conducted by Didane et al. [23] revealed that the performance of the lume method is considered as the discretization method.
wind turbine with regard to power output has improved by more than (i) Continuity equation:
threefold on average. This is owed to the fact that both counter-rotating ∂u¯ i
rotors had been exposed to a similar incoming wind as they were po- =0
∂x i (1)
sitioned atop of each other.
However, in order to extract the maximum output from this concept (ii) Momentum equation:
many geometrical parameters such the axial distance between the two ∂u¯ i ∂u¯ ∂p ∂2u¯ ∂u¯
counter-rotating rotors, varied diameter of the front or rear rotor, airfoil + u¯ j i = − + v 2i − u' j i + fi
∂t ∂x j ∂x i ∂x j ∂x j (2)
profile selection, operating wind condition, etc. could play a vital role
in increasing the output of a CRWT [17,19–22,24–27]. Jung et al. [20] where ūi and u j are respectively the average and fluctuating compo-
'

highlighted that a proper axial distance increases the output by 21%. nents of velocity in x i direction, ρ is air density, v is kinematic viscosity,
Similar conclusion was also drawn by Kumar et al. [27,28]. Moreover, fi represents body forces, p is average pressure and t is the time.
Lee et al. [25] also studied the effects of other geometrical parameters
such as pitch angle, rotating speed and rotor diameter using a modified Turbulence model
blade element momentum theory and found that the efficiency of the
CRWT has raised when the rear rotor rotated slower than the front rotor The turbulent model adopted in this work is Mentor’s k -ω shear
and when also both counter-rotating rotors shared the total power stress transport (SST) model [30–33] which has two equations. One for
output compared to when the front rotor harnessed the maximum specific turbulent kinetic energy, k (m2 / s 2 ) and the other for specific
power from the wind. turbulent dissipation rate, ω (s−1) (specific turbulent frequency) as
In terms of rotor size, many literature including Jung et al. [20] and shown in Eqs. (3) and (4).
Kumar et al. [27] shown that bigger rear rotor enhances the perfor-
∂ (ρk ) ∂ (ρUi k ) ∼ ∂ ⎡ ∂k
mance of a CRWT typically in low operating conditions. Jung [20] + = Pk − β ∗ρkω + (μ + σk μt ) ⎤
found that an improvement of up 60% when the front rotor was twice ∂t ∂x i ∂ xi ⎢
⎣ ∂ ⎥
xi ⎦ (3)
the size of the front rotor. However, the tradeoff of using similar rotor
radius for both counter-rotating rotors is higher compared to its var- ∂ (ρω) ∂ (ρUi ω) ∂ ⎡ ∂ω ⎤
+ = αρS 2 − βρkω2 + (μ + σω μt )
iation, many other studies suggest [16,17,21,25,28,29]. However, the ∂t ∂x i ∂ xi ⎢
⎣ ∂ xi ⎥
⎦
opposite case, where the front rotor is bigger than the rear rotor was not 1 ∂k ∂ω
+ 2(1 − F1 ) ρσω,2
yet studied extensively. This might be due to the basis of the theory that ω ∂ xi ∂ xi (4)
a configuration of two counter-rotating rotors with similar rotor dia- ∼
where Pk is the rate of production of turbulent kinetic energy and F1 is
meters that are positioned at the same axis would produce the max-
the blending function which is equal to zero when away from the wall
imum efficiency of a single-rotor wind turbine [25]. Similarly, the effect
surface and switches to one when inside the boundary layer for the case
of adopting different airfoil profile was also not covered broadly and
of k − ε model and k − ω model respectively.
requires further investigations. Furthermore, the majority of the nu-
The above equation can be written in words as: Rate of change of k
merical studies pertaining to improving the performance of the counter-
or ω + Transport of k or ω by convection = Rate of production of k or ω
rotating wind energy converter have been exerted while focusing on
– Rate of change of dissipation of k or ω + Transport of k or ω by
geometrical features that require abundant resources in terms of both
turbulent diffusion.
budget and time. This includes parameters such as number of blades
The effective viscosities (kg ·m−1·s−1) are:
axial distance, blade and rotor profile, blade profile distribution, pitch
difference between the two rotors, built-in twist angle, rotor RPM, 1
μk = μ + μt
number of blades, etc. Lee et al. [24] studied extensively the effect of σk (5)
axial distance between the two counter-rotating rotors using a numer-
1
ical approach while employing several distances in the range between μω = μ + μt
σω (6)
20 and 30 cm. It was found that a smaller axial distance improves the
performance of a tidal CRWT system. where μt is modified eddy (turbulent) viscosity, σk and σω are diffusion
Comparing the improvement this counter-rotating concept could constants of the model.
add to a single-rotor wind turbine system, with a horizontal axis and
with a vertical axis, it can be drawn that a wind turbine with vertical Methodology
axis can extract more power using this concept compared to a wind
turbine with a horizontal axis. Model geometry

Mathematical formulation The simulation study in this work is an extension of an experimental

Governing equations
The governing equations are a type of equations that the CFD
software undertakes in order to solve the input parameters or data. The
set of the equations solved by FLUENT are the Navier-Stokes equations
in their conservation form, particularly the continuity of mass and
momentum equations as shown in Eqs. (1) and (2). In the present study,
the flow is considered as a three-dimensional, unsteady, incompressible
and viscous flow. Moreover, the model of the computational domain is
a moving (rotating) object which means the mesh of the object is also
moving (moving frame). As a result, the governing equations are
usually modified in order to account for the moving frame. Thus, the
unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are the
study we have performed on a VAWT with the contra-rotating tech-
nique [23]. The two counter-rotating rotors (Fig. 1) are named as Rotor
1 and Rotor 2 for the top rotor and bottom rotor, respectively. The term
counter-rotating wind turbine (CRWT) is meant for the summation of
the two rotors as shown in Table 1. In total, eight different three-di-
mensional geometrical combinations are studied for this model. The
geometrical variations are established in terms of axial distance be-
tween the two rotors and blade height. Thus a total of five different
axial distances and three blade heights are involved in the range of
10 cm–30 cm and 50–150 cm, respectively. However, the chord and
diameter of the two rotors are kept constant with respectively 10 cm
and 80 cm. This is in an effort to observe the effect of the axial distance
and blade span on the performance of the current CRWT by de-
termining the most appropriate axial distance between the two rotors

45
D.H. Didane et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

Table 1 Thus, further refinement was applied on the airfoil by adjusting the
Input parameters of the simulation. global mesh controls (which affects the whole mesh of the model) and
Wind speed (m/s) Rotor 1 Rotor 2 CRWT local mesh controls (specifically for the blade wall mesh) as shown in
Fig. 5.
RPM TSR RPM TSR RPM TSR As a result, the advanced size function is set to proximity and cur-
vature which control the mesh sizes around curvatures and make the
5 45 0.38 56 0.47 101 0.85
6 48 0.34 72 0.50 120 0.84 mesh finer in the small regions. The relevance center is set to fine, the
7 60 0.36 81 0.48 141 0.84 edge sizing is set to 200 number of division and the inflation layers are
8 70 0.37 98 0.51 168 0.88 set to 20 layers at a growth rate of 1.1 in order to ensure that the mesh
9 82 0.38 115 0.54 197 0.92 can capture the boundary layer effect properly and thus y + less than 1
10 87 0.36 130 0.54 217 0.91
is achieved as required by turbulence models [32,35,43]. Given that
11 96 0.37 144 0.55 240 0.91
12 112 0.39 158 0.55 270 0.94 y + is based on Reynolds number, the process of obtaining y + less
than 1 was calculated on the maximum wind speed and maximum ro-
tational speed that were used in this study. The spatial discretization of
and by further increasing the blade height. Furthermore, the solidity of the whole computational domain is characterized by tetrahedral ele-
the current turbine is 0.75 as it is the ratio between the chord length to ments. The element size at the blade walls and at the semicircle PVCs
the radius of the turbine multiply by the number of blades. are set to 0.005 m. Meanwhile, at the interfaces, the length of the ele-
The blade profile utilized is the symmetrical NACA 0021 for both ments is fixed to 0.05 m. The total mesh elements of the computational
counter-rotating rotors which is shown in Fig. 2. The average operating domain which provided grid-independent solution was more 12.2
wind speed used was in the range of 5 m/s–12 m/s with corresponding million while maintaining a maximum skewness below 0.8.
rotational speed that ranges between 101 RPM and 270 RPM as shown
in Table 1. Moreover, the Tip-speed ratio (TSR), which is the ratio
Numerical simulation settings
between the upstream tip velocities of the blade to the incoming free-
stream velocity was also presented in Table 1. These input data are
The numerical simulation method in this study involves the use of
obtained from the experimental prototype provided in this study [23].
CFD package i.e. ANSYS Fluent 16.1 and ANSYS Fluent 19.1. The fluid
In order to perform the simulation effectively, the full-scale CRWT
flow problem is solved using incompressible unsteady Reynolds-aver-
model as shown in Fig. 1 is subjected to some simplification processes.
aged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. The hybrid k-omega shear stress
Hence, only features which may have significant effect on solution are
transport (SST) model was adopted as the turbulent viscosity model.
considered during the simulation including the top rotor blades, bottom
This is due to the presence of flow transition from laminar to turbulence
rotor blades and the PVCs for each rotor set as shown in Fig. 3. The
in straight-bladed VAWT and occurrence of reverse flow and a strong
central shaft and the supporting arms were ignored for their negligible
adverse pressure gradient effect [44,45]. The pressure-based coupled
effect on the solution as recent studies suggest [9,34–40].
algorithm was used as the scheme for the pressure–velocity coupling in
the solution methods. Coupled algorithm has the ability to achieve full
CFD spatial domain discretization
pressure velocity coupling and also virtuous particularly when the mesh
quality is low or when the time step is large for transient simulations
Given that a wind turbine is a rotating machine, the domain of the
[46,47].
current model is divided into two domains; fixed zone and rotating zone
A uniform velocity inlet boundary condition was applied at the free-
(Fig. 4-a). The fixed rectangular domain embodies the overall calcula-
stream flow directed along the x-axis. A pressure outlet boundary
tion area of the simulation and the rotating circular (cylindrical) do-
condition was set at the outlet with a standard sea level atmospheric
main represents the rotating domain where the two counter-rotating
pressure condition, i.e. equal to 101325 Pa. A no-slip wall boundary
rotors spin. The rotating zones are further subdivided into two zones
condition was assigned to the blades and PVCs. A non-conformal in-
due to the opposite rotation of the two rotors. The top rotating zone
terface was set at the boundary of both regions in order to allow flow
contains the upper rotor and the bottom rotating zone embodies the
continuity from fixed zone to the rotating zone. Moreover, another non-
lower rotor as illustrated in Fig. 4-a. these two zone are separated by a
conformal interface was also introduced between the two rotors as the
non-conformal interface.
rotating domain is subdivided into two zones.
The rotating circular domain is placed nine times the rotor radius
upwind from the inlet and twenty-three times downwind from the ro-
tation axis as shown in Fig. 4-b. A bigger domain is necessary and Description of experiment settings and testing procedure
should always be used in order to avoid the interference of the walls
shear (boundary layer effects) which results from solid blockage effects This section presents a brief introduction of the experimental setup
[9,41,42]. The rotational axis is at the center of the rotational domain and testing procedure of the prototype which has been used as the
with a diameter of 1.5 m. Rossetti & Pavesi [10] and Balduzzi et al. [36]
0.2
suggest that the diameter of the rotating domain should remain smaller
than two times the rotor diameter in order to reduce computational
0.1
cost. While the width and the height of the fixed rectangular region are
set to be 12 times the rotor radius, in order to avoid solid blockage and
0.1
to allow a full development of the wake at the rear of the turbine [34].
Furthermore, the accuracy of the model under prediction pre-
0.0
y/c

dominately depends on the quality of the mesh cells (elements). The

higher is the grid quality, the higher is the tendency of achieving more x/c
-0.1
accurate flow solution. As such, particular care was given to the region
of interest which is the airfoil surface or wall. A fine mesh was applied -0.1
on the whole model domain even though it is computationally ex-
pensive, however, it helped in acquiring more precise, grid-independent -0.2
solution. It is a common practice to gauge the mesh size that provides
the desired accuracy while maintaining reasonable computational cost. Fig. 2. NACA 0021 airfoil profile.

46
D.H. Didane et al.
Fig. 3. Main features considered in the simulation.
reference for both design and testing in the current simulation study. As
shown in Fig. 6-a, the two counter-rotating rotors were fabricated from
pinewood material while using the symmetrical NACA0021 airfoil
profile. Given that symmetrical NACA airfoils have generally inherent
difficulties to self-start, semicircle tube from Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
material were installed at the median of each blade span in order to
assist each rotor to self-start. In terms of operation, the top rotor and
bottom rotor are predesigned rotate in clockwise and counterclockwise
direction, respectively with the help of one-direction bearings. The
main geometrical features of the experimental model are shown in
Table 2 and Fig. 6.
In order to assess the effectiveness of the counter-rotating concept,
the performance of the model was established by measuring its me-
chanical torque. This torque was determined using the rope brake dy-
namometer arrangement as shown in Fig. 6-b. In this method, a number
of nylon string are wound around the shaft. The string is attached to a
brake load in one end and to a spring balance in the other end in order
to observe its reading. The operating wind speed was generated using
two centrifugal blowers with the capacity of 7.5 kW. Each blower was
directed toward a rotor using a 4 m long and 0.3 m diameter pipe. At
each wind condition, torque, power and rotational speed were mea-
sured for both single-rotor and counter-rotating rotors. The output from
each rotor was then observed and compared so that how much extra
output the presence of the second rotor could add to the single-rotor
system. It is also worth to note that all input parameters shown in
Table 1 are adopted from the experimental testing.
(a) 3D isometric view
Fig. 4. Computational domain.
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53
Results and discussion
Model validation
Prior to presenting the current simulation results, a reliability
checking process has to be performed so that the reliability of the
method, model and the assumption adopted in the simulation process is
confirmed. Thus, a form of validation process was performed by re-
producing a similar CRWT presented by Didane et al. [23]. The actual
prototype and geometrical features of the validation model are shown
in Fig. 6 and Table 2, respectively. The validation process is presented
with regard to power coefficient and torque coefficient from experi-
mental and simulated counter-rotating rotors. As illustrated in Figs. 7
and 8, a close agreement between the experimental and numerical re-
sults can be observed notably at the lower operating speeds. However,
the output results tend to diverge at higher wind speeds. Nevertheless,
the results achieved from the current simulation method and the ex-
isting experimental work [23] for both power and torque coefficients
are comparable. The average deviation obtained is within the accep-
table range. However, the under-prediction of the simulation data at
higher wind speeds could partly be due to the fully turbulent k–ω SST
model been used. Although this turbulent model was able to predict
closest results to the experimental data, it sometimes under predicts the
generated power, Shaheen et al. [48] and Lanzafame et al. [35] re-
ported. Such outcome is not new and it was found in many studies
including Cai et al. [49] Mohamed [50], Shaheen et al. [48] and Lan-
zafame et al. [35] as well. However, such results could be accepted with
the condition that the deviation does not exceed the allowable en-
gineering limit in wind turbine analysis. The corresponding average
deviation obtained was about 7%. As a result, the reliability of the
current methods is proven to be authentic and genuine and could be
considered for further simulation process.
Performance of the counter-rotating rotors
The performance of a wind turbine is best characterized typically by
its aerodynamic components of action such as torque and power. Thus,
this section presents the predicted performance evaluation of the CRWT
in terms of torque and torque coefficient. This is in an attempt to
highlight the effectiveness of the said wind turbine to effectively pro-
duce useful mechanical torque and to what extent is its conversion ef-
ficiency by employing the computational approach. The results are
revealed with regard to average output torque and torque coefficient as
illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively.
It can be seen from Fig. 9 that there has been a steady increase in the
average output torque with the increase of Reynolds number (wind
speed) in both cases i.e. single-rotor and dual-rotor. Minimum and
maximum torques were observed at 5 m/s and 12 m/s respectively
which is also accords with the findings in reference [23]. This is be-
cause the corresponding rotational speed increases with the wind speed
which resulted in an increase of the torque output accordingly.
(b) Top view
D.H. Didane et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

(a) (b)
Fig. 5. (a) Mesh around the rotor in the rotating domain and (b) Inflation layers on the blade.

(a) (b)

Fig. 6. Experimental setup (a) Actual prototype (b) Schematic diagram of the model [23].

Table 2 Typically, the torque output increases with rotational speed until it
Main features of the validation model. reaches its optimum rotational speed and then decreases. Moreover,
Parameters Rotor 1 Rotor 2 given that the power output from a wind turbine has a direct re-
lationship with torque; such increase of torque may result in an en-
Airfoil profile NACA 0021 NACA 0021 ormous increase in the power of the system. Furthermore, although the
Rotor diameter 0.8 m 0.8 m
contribution of Rotor 1 is small in terms of output performance, the
Height 0.5 m 0.5 m
No. of blades 3 3
presence of the second rotor (Rotor 2) has improved the performance of
No. of PVC 3 3 the system by more than twofold on average for both torque and its
Rotor position Upwind Upwind coefficient, as evident in Fig. 11.
Rotation Clockwise Counter-clockwise On the other hand, it is equally of paramount importance to eval-
Blade aspect ratio 0.8 0.8
uate the output obtained using a dimensionless parameter, which is the
Axial distance 0.16 m
Rotor solidity 0.75 0.75 torque coefficient in this context. This is because torque output alone
cannot show detailed performance analysis of a wind turbine in terms
of self-starting ability, overall rating, etc. Thus Fig. 11 presents the
torque output data with regard to torque coefficient for both SRWT and
CRWT as a function of operating wind speed. It can be observed that the

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D.H. Didane et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

Experimental Simulation Rotor 1 Rotor 2 CRWT

0.55 0.50

0.50 0.45

0.45 0.40

0.35
Power coefficient, Cp

0.40

Torque coefficient, Ct
0.30
0.35
0.25
0.30
0.20
0.25
0.15
0.20
0.10

0.15 0.05

0.10 0.00
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Wind speed (m/s) Wind speed (m/s)
Fig. 7. Current simulation and experimental power coefficients. Fig. 10. Variations of torque coefficient with respect to wind speed.

Experimental Simulation Increment Average

0.55 3.5

0.50
3.0
Percentage Torque increase (%)
0.45

2.5
Torque coefficient, Ct

0.40

0.35 2.0

0.30
1.5
0.25
1.0
0.20

0.15 0.5

0.10
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Wind speed (m/s) Wind speed (m/s)

Fig. 8. Current simulation and experimental torque coefficients. Fig. 11. Percentage torque increase of the CRWT compared to the SRWT.

Rotor 1 Rotor 2 CRWT turbine was capable of converting the torque output into usable torque
0.45 throughout the working wind speed condition with nearly similar
performance coefficient, which is in the range of 36%–40% as the
0.40
minimum and maximum coefficients, respectively. Such conversion
0.35 coefficient is considered high which denotes that the potential of the
current CRWT to self-start is quite high. As Shepherd and Zhang [51];
Power coefficient, Cp

0.30 and Manwell, McGowan and Rogers [52] indicated, a high value of
torque coefficient is responsible for self-starting capability of a VAWT,
0.25
which was also concluded in the experimental results presented in [23].
0.20 The computational results also demonstrated that the torque var-
iation is essentially a result of pressure difference and viscosity force
0.15 vectors on the blade surfaces. The great portion of the torque output
obtained is owed to pressure difference and only a small portion is
0.10
coming from viscosity differences. Maître et al. [45] also indicated that
0.05
the viscosity contributions on the performance output are negligible.
Figs. 12 and 13 show 2D slices of velocity contours at the median of
0.00 spanwise position of the rotor where the semicircle PVC are cut into two
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 halves for both top rotor and bottom rotor, respectively. The velocity
Wind speed (m/s) distribution graphs in the vicinity of the counter-rotating rotors reveal
that the tangential velocity is higher at the circumference of the rotor
Fig. 9. Variations of power coefficient with respect to wind speed.
and decreases gradually towards the center of rotation. It was also
observed that the velocity contours or distributions around the lower

49
D.H. Didane et al.
(a) Rotor 1 (5 m/s)
Fig. 12. Velocity contours of top rotor at low and high working fluid condition.
rotor are higher than the top rotor. This is true for both lower and
higher wind speed conditions as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. This has
happened as expected due to the higher rotational speed of Rotor 2.
Moreover, Figs. 12 and 13 also depicts 2D velocity flow filed around
the counter-rotating rotors. Given that the blades are symmetrical, a
consistent velocity distribution around the blades is observed for all
conditions with a higher gradient at higher Reynolds number (Figs. 12-
b and 13-b) and lower ones at low Reynolds number (Figs. 12-a and 13-
a). The velocity magnitude represents high values on the windward side
of the turbine, however, it decreases at the wake and therefore, wake
formation occurs behind the rotors. This results from the blockage of
the advancing blade while the rotor is completing its revolutions and
the increased rotational speed.
Figs. 14 and 15 illustrates 2D velocity streamlines of the two
counter-rotating rotors after completing one second of rotation time at
5 m/s (Low Re) and 12 m/s (High Re) working speeds. The 2D slices of
velocity streamlines are cut at the median of spanwise position of the
rotor. As seen from the figures, the velocity streamlines show the flow
particles along and around the blade surfaces. It was observed that high
flow stirring occurs at low Reynolds number (Figs. 14-b and 15-b)
which created a high-density turbulence in the wake of the moving
rotors. Smoother streamlines are seen at the wake when the Reynolds
number is high (Figs. 14-a and 15-a). This is owed to the fact that in this
condition, the blades approach close solid form whereby the airflow
passes freely through the rotor or blades without the disturbance of
stirring effect. However, the flow field separated on blade and PVC
surfaces and created a repeating pattern of swirling vortices with op-
posite rotational direction as shown in Figs. 14 and 15.
On the other hand, the counter rotation of the top and bottom rotors
(a) Rotor 2 (5 m/s)
Fig. 13. Velocity contours of bottom rotor at low and high working fluid condition.
50
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53
(b) Rotor 1 (12 m/s)
created a huge turbulence at the wake due to the existence of shear
which is initiated from the velocity differences. However, due to the
presence of both rotors at the same axial position, the performance of
the rotors has not been affected with the vortex shading. Fig. 16 illus-
trates the turbulence around the two counter-rotating rotors at low and
high Reynolds number based on iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion. Q-cri-
terion is the second invariant of the velocity gradient tensor. As shown
in the figure, the vortices in wake of the rotors are larger at low Rey-
nolds number compared to higher Reynolds number. This is owed to the
slower rotational speed which allowed higher interaction of the vortices
that created a complex flowfield at the wake. Moreover, the vortex
shadings are also smaller near rotor and becomes larger in the wake
behind the wind turbine. However, in the case of high Reynolds
number, the vortices structure break down into large vortices in the far
wake and can only be observed in the near wake as shown in Fig. 16-b.
Furthermore, it was learned that the major part of the turbulence in the
wake is generated from the shear originated from the difference in air
velocity (velocity gradient) inside and outside the wake.
Effect of the axial distance between the two rotors
This section explores five various axial distances aiming to provide a
more detailed flow characteristic for the current design of CRWT and
the influence of the axial distance between top rotor (Rotor 1) and
bottom rotor (Rotor 2). Fig. 17 compares and reveals data for five
varying axial distances between the two rotors at a constant blade
height/span of 50 cm. It is apparent from the figure that the axial dis-
tance has less influence on the performance of the CRWT. Of all the
distances examined, starting from as smaller as 10 cm up to 30 cm, the
(b) Rotor 2 (12 m/s)
D.H. Didane et al.
(a) Rotor 1(Low Re)
Fig. 14. Flow streamlines of top rotor at low and high working fluid condition.
variation observed was quite small. In fact, there is a clear trend that
can be noticed which indicates that smaller axial distance contributes
positively to enhancement of the performance of the model with regard
to both torque and power outputs compared to larger axial distances.
Moreover, it is also observed that the output of the power coefficient
increases as the freestream wind increases reaching its maximum
output at the highest wind speed condition which is 12 m/s with a
maximum power coefficient of about 43% at 10 cm axial distance. The
figure (Fig. 17) also reveals that the output variations with regard to
power coefficient were small and trivial at lower wind speed conditions
and tend to slightly increase at higher wind speeds. Noticeable differ-
ence appeared only after 8 m/s wind speed.
However, unlike in the case of horizontal-axis CRWT, this phe-
nomenon happens due to the fact that the position of the main rotor is
set at the top of the auxiliary rotor and not at the downwind position as
in horizontal-axis CRWT case, where unwanted turbulence (vortex
shedding) occur. Moreover, in the current case, both rotors receive an
equal amount of working velocity without any obstruction disturbing
the fluid flow as in the counterpart horizontal-axis CRWT. As such, both
counter rotating rotors have not been affected significantly by the ro-
tation of the individual rotors. Thus, maximum power and torque oc-
curred when the axial distance was 10 cm. As a result, the counter-
rotating model with 10 cm axial distance could be considered as the
most appropriate design for future consideration as it has not only
improved the performance of the model but also provides a compact
design. The average percentage difference obtained compared to the
actual experimental design (16 cm) was 3% more conversion efficiency
from the 10 cm axial distance and the least with 5% less efficiency as
shown in Fig. 17.
(a) Rotor 2 (Low Re)
Fig. 15. Flow streamlines of bottom rotor at low and high working fluid condition.
51
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53
(b) Rotor 1 (High Re)
Effect of blade aspect ratio
While the performance of the CRWT under this study has been in-
vestigated in many different ways including the effect of axial distance
between the two counter-rotating rotors, this section seeks to address
the effect of the blade height (aspect ratio) and report the appropriate
blade height for this CRWT. Given that the typical blade height of a
straight-bladed Darrius wind turbine is usually more than one meter,
three different blade heights are examined, all of which will reveal the
effect of aspect ratio in terms of both power coefficient and torque
coefficient.
In Fig. 18, the power coefficient with respect to incoming working
fluid for three different rotor aspect ratios at a constant axial distance of
16 cm of CRWT are illustrated. It is observed that the performance
output with regard to power tends to increase with the increase of the
blade height or aspect ratio. The bigger is the aspect ratio, the more
conversion coefficient is attained. This is because bigger aspect ratio
can accommodate more wind and thus harvests more energy compared
to the smaller aspect ratio. It is also worth to note that the projected
area of an H-type VAWT is a product of blade height and diameter of
the rotor, and as wind power is known to increase with cross-sectional
area, the theory suggest that bigger area which is resulted from the
height of the blade produces more power.
Moreover, Figs. 18 and 19 are also quite revealing in several ways.
First, it can be noted that output results are increasing as the working
fluid is increased. Secondly, the variations in output quantity between
the different aspect ratio seem to be smaller in lower wind conditions
compared to higher ones. This is true for both power coefficient and
torque coefficient graphs as shown in Figs. 18 and 19. Furthermore, the
CRWT with 1.875 aspect ratio harnessed the highest amount of energy
from the working fluid, while the 0.625 aspect ratio CRWT produced
(b) Rotor 2 (High Re)
D.H. Didane et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 31 (2019) 43–53

(a) Low Reynolds number (5 m/s) (b) High Reynolds number (12 m/s)
Fig. 16. Iso-surfaces of Q-criterion at low and high Reynolds number.

10 cm 16 cm 20 cm 25 cm 30 cm H/D=0.625 H/D=1.25 H/D=1.875

3% Actual -1% -4% -5%
0.5
0.7

0.6
0.4

Torque coefficient, Ct
Power coefficient, Cp

0.5
0.3
0.4

0.2 0.3

0.2
0.1

0.1

0.0
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Wind speed (m/s) Wind speed (m/s)

Fig. 17. Power coefficient variations with axial distance and their percentage Fig. 19. Effect of blade height on torque output of CRWT.
difference.
findings highlight the beneficial effects of increasing rotor aspect ratio
H/D=0.625 H/D=1.25 H/D=1.875 for optimal power production from this new design of CRWT.
Similarly, in the aspect of torque coefficient, the result obtained also
0.7 accords with our earlier observations in terms of power coefficient,
which consistently indicate that bigger rotor aspect ratio can perform
0.6 better in terms of torque coefficient as well as shown in Fig. 19. The
maximum torque coefficient possible was about 63% when the aspect
Power coefficient, Cp

0.5 ratio is 1.875 compared to only about 37% in the case of 0.625 aspect
ratio which is almost double at the same working fluid condition. The
0.4 evidence presented thus far also supports the idea that wind turbine
performance improves when the aspect ratio is increased. This clearly
0.3 indicates the significance of having proper blade aspect ratio in order to
optimally increase the performance of the model.
0.2 However, such peak in the conversion coefficients in Figs. 18 and 19
is because at each aspect ratio presented, the Cp or Ct values are the
0.1 outcomes of both top and bottom counter-rotating rotors combined.
These two rotors indicated a better performance and generated output
0.0 which equivalent to the output of two separate rotors in some condi-
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 tions and more than that in some other situations which was high-
Wind speed (m/s) lighted as more than double output. This is again due to the increased
rotational speed of the bottom rotor which carries the generator. Such
Fig. 18. Effect of blade height on power output of CRWT.
an outcome was also achieved in the experimental study conducted in
[23]. Furthermore, the high torque and power outputs and their cor-
the least amount. The maximum power coefficients harvested by each responding torque coefficient and power coefficient occurred at the
turbine were in the order of 37%, 49% and 63% for the turbine with maximum rotational speed (270 RPM) which happened at the max-
rotor aspect ratio of 0.625, 1.25 and 1.875, respectively. Thus, these imum upstream wind and a TSR of almost a unity (0.94). Nevertheless,

52
D.H. Didane et al.
the performance could further be improved by increasing the TSR to
more than a unity as straight-bladed airfoils operate better at this range
[51].
Conclusion
In this study, an aerodynamic performance prediction of a novel
VAWT model with a contra-rotating concept has been studied over a
range of operating condition using a numerical simulation. The 3D CFD
simulations were performed using unsteady RANS equations. The re-
sults are presented in terms of aerodynamic quantities such as power
coefficient and torque coefficient. The study reveals that this new
system was able to enhance the performance of a SRWT by nearly
threefold with regard to aerodynamic power coefficient at any given
wind speed. The new system was also capable of producing high
starting torque at low wind speed which enabled self-start of the sym-
metrical H-type airfoil of the system used. This capability is owed to the
incorporation of semicircle PVCs on each arm of the two rotors.
Moreover, while determining the appropriate axial distance between
the contra-rotating rotors, the simulation study indicates that smaller
distance tends to enhance the performance output of the system rela-
tively better compared to larger distance with 10 cm distance found to
be optimal. However, in terms of rotor aspect ratio, larger rotor aspect
ratio generated the highest amount of power.
Although this new system performed significantly well, further
improvement in the new system could be made in terms of static geo-
metrical parameters such as proper solidity factor, different airfoil type,
different blade design i.e. Savonius type rotor, etc. which may hopefully
enhances the performance of the system further.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude and gratefully
acknowledge the financial support received from Universiti Tun
Hussein Onn Malaysia under the research grant ID: U416.
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