Computational Flow Analysis of a Passive Control Windmill Sail Rotor with Field Measurement Verification

This study presents a computational and experimental aerodynamic characterisation of a full-scale 5.5 m diameter, six-sail horizontal-axis windmill of the traditional Cretan Lasithi type, equipped with flexible woven polyester sails that act as a passive load-control mechanism. Seventeen operating points spanning wind speeds of 2.3–18.3 m/s were simulated in OpenFOAM using a transient sliding-mesh Arbitrary Mesh Interface formulation with the k –ω SST turbulence closure on a 2.3 million cell grid, selected on the basis of a four-level grid convergence study. CFD simulations identify three distinct aerodynamic regimes: a drag-dominated high-TSR regime (λ > 2.1), a mixed lift–drag working range with peak loading near λ ≈ 1.4–1.5, and a deep-stall regime in which boundary-layer separation propagates from root to tip as λ falls below 1.0. Field measurements conducted at the Energy Systems Synthesis Lab of the Hellenic Mediterranean University in compliance with IEC 61400-12-1:2005(E) confirm that rotor speed stabilises passively at 55–58 RPM above 13 m/s without any active control mechanism; CFD predictions agree with measured power output within 8–12% across the 2–13 m/s attached-flow envelope. The combined evidence indicates that passive overspeed self-regulation is driven by aeroelastic sail deformation, reducing effective disc solidity at high wind speeds, a mechanism that rigid-geometry CFD correctly identifies in trend but cannot quantify in magnitude. The primary limitation of the present work is the rigid-sail assumption of the CFD model, which requires a two-way coupled fluid–structure interaction extension as a future step.