OpenFOAM case for a small wind turbine simulation.
The wind turbine is constructed with the following steps:
- Math: a few rough calculations using Python/Spyder
- QBlade: choice and assembly of airfoils
- FreeCAD: generation of rotor, nacelle and tower geometry with a Python script. Another script creates CFD computational domain(s) and exports it to STEP.
- OpenFOAM: STL file preparation is done in SALOME.
This is a simpleFoam/pimpleDyMFoam case consisting of 3 separate meshes, coupled with AMI: upstream, rotating and downstream. Obviously rotating part rotates and has all cells in rotating cellZone. Meshing is done exclusively with cfMesh. The RANS model used is k-Omega SST.
Bear in mind this is a heavily simplified case. The sole purpose of the simulation is to find out whether a cut-in speed of 1 m/s is enough for the designed turbine. The results probably aren't very accurate but they don't have to be anyway.
The workflow ./combineMeshes: combines meshes from upstream, rotating and downstream. ./decompose: copy 0.orig directory to 0 and decompose ./run: runs pimpleDyMFoam with MPI.