Numerical Investigation of Wind Turbine Nacelle Cooling with Al2O3 Nanofluid

Abstract

The high temperature generated due to the heating of the electrical and mechanical components like generator, gear box & control system inside the nacelle of a wind mill causes unpredictable stresses to be produced which leads to some complications in conception. For long-term working of wind mill this waste heat generated has to be removed so that temperature of air inside the nacelle can be kept within tolerable limits. Liquid cooling systems for heat removal from the wind mill nacelle have replaced the air-cooling technique which was broadly utilized for large wind turbines. In present work, the use of nanofluid for removing heat from the wind mill nacelle is suggested. In this work, a heat load of 1 kW on the wind-turbine-nacelle, has been considered. Numerical investigation has been done both for water and Al2O3/water nanofluid and their comparative results are presented. It is observed that, with the use of nanofluid as heat removal medium, heat exchange can be significantly enhanced in contrast to that of water and hence the overall thermal performance factor of the wind mill is increased.