Case Study: University of Texas at Arlington achieves 7% wind turbine efficiency gain with Tecplot 360 and Pointwise

Automated CFD methods and independent tools help improve efficiency of vertical axis wind turbines, which can ultimately increase market viability of micro power devices

The University of Texas at Arlington sought to improve the efficiency and market viability of vertical-axis wind turbines, which are small-scale power solutions for urban and remote areas. A research team led by graduate student Travis Carrigan aimed to develop an automated computational process to optimize the turbine's blade design, reducing the reliance on manual methods and accelerating development.

Using Tecplot 360 for post-processing CFD results, alongside Pointwise for meshing and ANSYS FLUENT as the solver, the university implemented an integrated optimization loop. This independent tool approach from Tecplot and others delivered a more efficient and automated design process. The results showed the optimization successfully eliminated leading-edge vortex shedding, resulting in a 7% increase in turbine efficiency and a significant reduction in design time.

University of Texas at Arlington

Travis Carrigan

Technical Sales Engineer