IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v256y2026ipbs0960148125014405.html

Towards enhanced startup performance of Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines: Key flow features at moderate tip speed ratios

Author

Listed:
  • Abdolahifar, Abolfazl
  • Montazeri, Hamid
  • Zanj, Amir

Abstract

The self-starting capability of Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) remains a critical challenge, limiting their ability to reach optimal tip speed ratios (TSRs) without external assistance. While previous studies have explored startup aerodynamics, the underlying flow mechanisms governing torque generation at moderate TSRs remain insufficiently understood. This study employs high-fidelity three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to systematically investigate the aerodynamic behavior of a two-bladed straight Darrieus turbine across a wide TSR range (0.25–4.0). The analysis focuses on the VAWT-X blade profile, a patented design, alongside other widely used profiles, including DU 06-W-200 variants, to assess their impact on startup performance. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model are used to capture the unsteady flow physics, including blade-vortex interactions and dynamic stall. The results reveal that leading-edge vortex formation and trailing-edge vortex shedding significantly influence torque production. The VAWT-X profile demonstrates improved vortex control compared to the DU 06-W-200 variant, enhancing average torque by 34% at TSR 0.5. Two primary mechanisms govern downwind torque generation: (i) blade-vortex interaction and (ii) blade recovery during downstroke motion. These findings provide critical insights into the aerodynamic design of next-generation VAWTs, offering optimized strategies for improved startup performance while maintaining efficiency at higher TSRs.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdolahifar, Abolfazl & Montazeri, Hamid & Zanj, Amir, 2026. "Towards enhanced startup performance of Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines: Key flow features at moderate tip speed ratios," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pb:s0960148125014405
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125014405
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2025.123778?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abolfazl Abdolahifar & Amir Zanj, 2024. "Addressing VAWT Aerodynamic Challenges as the Key to Unlocking Their Potential in the Wind Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Wong, Kok Hoe & Chong, Wen Tong & Poh, Sin Chew & Shiah, Yui-Chuin & Sukiman, Nazatul Liana & Wang, Chin-Tsan, 2018. "3D CFD simulation and parametric study of a flat plate deflector for vertical axis wind turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 32-55.
    3. Gupta, Antim & Abderrahmane, Hamid Ait & Janajreh, Isam, 2024. "Flow analysis and sensitivity study of vertical-axis wind turbine under variable pitching," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    4. Rezaeiha, Abdolrahim & Montazeri, Hamid & Blocken, Bert, 2019. "On the accuracy of turbulence models for CFD simulations of vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 838-857.
    5. Zanforlin, Stefania & Deluca, Stefano, 2018. "Effects of the Reynolds number and the tip losses on the optimal aspect ratio of straight-bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 179-195.
    6. Karimian, S.M.H. & Abdolahifar, Abolfazl, 2020. "Performance investigation of a new Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    7. Zhang, Dan & Wu, Zhenglong & Chen, Yaoran & Kuang, Limin & Peng, Yan & Zhou, Dai & Tu, Yu, 2024. "Full-scale vs. scaled aerodynamics of 5-MW offshore VAWTs under pitch motion: A numerical analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 372(C).
    8. Li, Yan & Tong, Guoqiang & Ma, Yunfei & Feng, Fang & Tagawa, Kotaro, 2023. "Numerical study on aerodynamic performance improvement of the straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine by using wind concentrators," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P2).
    9. Ardaneh, Fatemeh & Abdolahifar, Abolfazl & Karimian, S.M.H., 2022. "Numerical analysis of the pitch angle effect on the performance improvement and flow characteristics of the 3-PB Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    10. Celik, Yunus & Ingham, Derek & Ma, Lin & Pourkashanian, Mohamed, 2022. "Design and aerodynamic performance analyses of the self-starting H-type VAWT having J-shaped aerofoils considering various design parameters using CFD," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    11. Rezaeiha, Abdolrahim & Kalkman, Ivo & Blocken, Bert, 2017. "CFD simulation of a vertical axis wind turbine operating at a moderate tip speed ratio: Guidelines for minimum domain size and azimuthal increment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 373-385.
    12. Tong, Guoqiang & Yang, Shengbing & Li, Yan & Feng, Fang, 2023. "Effects of blade tip flow on aerodynamic characteristics of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    13. Abdolahifar, Abolfazl & Karimian, S.M.H., 2022. "A comprehensive three-dimensional study on Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine with slotted blade to reduce flow separation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    14. Le Fouest, Sébastien & Mulleners, Karen, 2022. "The dynamic stall dilemma for vertical-axis wind turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 505-520.
    15. Marsh, Philip & Ranmuthugala, Dev & Penesis, Irene & Thomas, Giles, 2015. "Numerical investigation of the influence of blade helicity on the performance characteristics of vertical axis tidal turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 926-935.
    16. Wang, Ying & Shen, Sheng & Li, Gaohui & Huang, Diangui & Zheng, Zhongquan, 2018. "Investigation on aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbine with different series airfoil shapes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 801-818.
    17. Rezaeiha, Abdolrahim & Montazeri, Hamid & Blocken, Bert, 2018. "Towards optimal aerodynamic design of vertical axis wind turbines: Impact of solidity and number of blades," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PB), pages 1129-1148.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Farzadi, Ramin & Zanj, Amir & Bazargan, Majid, 2024. "Effect of baffles on efficiency of darrieus vertical axis wind turbines equipped with J-type blades," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    2. Hand, Brian & Kelly, Ger & Cashman, Andrew, 2021. "Aerodynamic design and performance parameters of a lift-type vertical axis wind turbine: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Erkan, Onur & Özkan, Musa & Çelik, Yunus & Khalid, Muhammad Saif Ullah, 2025. "Taguchi-based multi-factor analysis of self-starting behavior in vertical axis wind turbine farms," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    4. Barnes, Andrew & Marshall-Cross, Daniel & Hughes, Ben Richard, 2021. "Towards a standard approach for future Vertical Axis Wind Turbine aerodynamics research and development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Unnikrishnan Divakaran & Ajith Ramesh & Akram Mohammad & Ratna Kishore Velamati, 2021. "Effect of Helix Angle on the Performance of Helical Vertical Axis Wind Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-24, January.
    6. Krzysztof Rogowski & Martin Otto Laver Hansen & Galih Bangga, 2020. "Performance Analysis of a H-Darrieus Wind Turbine for a Series of 4-Digit NACA Airfoils," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-28, June.
    7. Hassan, Syed Saddam ul & Javaid, M. Tariq & Rauf, Umar & Nasir, Sheharyar & Shahzad, Aamer & Salamat, Shuaib, 2023. "Systematic investigation of power enhancement of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines using bio-inspired leading edge tubercles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    8. Antonio García Auyanet & Rangga E. Santoso & Hrishikesh Mohan & Sanvay S. Rathore & Debapriya Chakraborty & Patrick G. Verdin, 2022. "CFD-Based J-Shaped Blade Design Improvement for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    9. Acarer, Sercan & Uyulan, Çağlar & Karadeniz, Ziya Haktan, 2020. "Optimization of radial inflow wind turbines for urban wind energy harvesting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    10. Karimi, Arshia & Shirimozafari, Mohammad & Farzadi, Ramin & Bazargan, Majid, 2025. "A numerical investigation on effects of blades with varying chord length in Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    11. Jorge-Saúl Gallegos-Molina & Ernesto Chavero-Navarrete, 2025. "A Systematic Review of Technological Strategies to Improve Self-Starting in H-Type Darrieus VAWT," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-40, September.
    12. Ma, Kaifang & Wang, Jiasong & Zheng, Hanxu & Lin, Ke, 2025. "Effect of plasma actuator on the aerodynamic performance of Darrieus straight-blade vertical axis wind turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    13. Keisar, David & Arava, Idan & Greenblatt, David, 2024. "Dynamic-stall-driven vertical axis wind turbine: An experimental parametric study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    14. Rezaeiha, Abdolrahim & Montazeri, Hamid & Blocken, Bert, 2019. "Active flow control for power enhancement of vertical axis wind turbines: Leading-edge slot suction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    15. Zhang, Dan & Chen, Junchao & Chen, Yaoran & Kuang, Limin & Wu, Zhenglong & Peng, Yan & Zhou, Dai & Tu, Yu, 2026. "Wake characteristics of 5-MW floating VAWTs under coupled pitch-surge motions: A numerical analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PI).
    16. Singh, Enderaaj & Roy, Sukanta & Yam, Ke San & Law, Ming Chiat, 2023. "Numerical analysis of H-Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines with varying aspect ratios for exhaust energy extractions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    17. Peng, H.Y. & Liu, H.J. & Yang, J.H., 2021. "A review on the wake aerodynamics of H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    18. Chen, Yunrui & Guo, Penghua & Lin, Yichen & Li, Jingyin, 2024. "Optimization and analysis of the deflector system for a bidirectional H-type hydrokinetic twin-turbine system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    19. Shen, Zhuang & Gong, Shuguang & Zu, Hongxiao & Guo, Weiyu, 2024. "Multi-objective optimization study on the performance of double Darrieus hybrid vertical axis wind turbine based on DOE-RSM and MOPSO-MODM," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    20. Tong, Guoqiang & Li, Yan & Tagawa, Kotaro & Feng, Fang, 2023. "Effects of blade airfoil chord length and rotor diameter on aerodynamic performance of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines by numerical simulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pb:s0960148125014405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.