%0 Journal Article %A Marco Raciti Castelli and Stefano De Betta and Ernesto Benini %D 2012 %J International Journal of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering %B World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology %I Open Science Index 61, 2012 %T Effect of Blade Number on a Straight-Bladed Vertical-Axis Darreius Wind Turbine %U https://publications.waset.org/pdf/12820 %V 61 %X This paper presents a mean for reducing the torque variation during the revolution of a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) by increasing the blade number. For this purpose, twodimensional CDF analysis have been performed on a straight-bladed Darreius-type rotor. After describing the computational model, a complete campaign of simulations based on full RANS unsteady calculations is proposed for a three, four and five-bladed rotor architecture characterized by a NACA 0025 airfoil. For each proposed rotor configuration, flow field characteristics are investigated at several values of tip speed ratio, allowing a quantification of the influence of blade number on flow geometric features and dynamic quantities, such as rotor torque and power. Finally, torque and power curves are compared for the analyzed architectures, achieving a quantification of the effect of blade number on overall rotor performance. %P 68 - 74