A review of darrieus hydrokinetic turbine performance enhancement strategies

The Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine is a turbine that use vertical axis to convert water kinetic energy into mechanical rotation around its axis using lift device. The flexibility of the installation location and the simple design have made the Darrieus turbine widely developed for water turbines and wind turbines. However, the hydrokinetic Darrieus turbine has several drawbacks that need to be improved, such as blade wake interactions, dynamic stall, sinusoidal torque pattern and poor self-start capability. In this article, the strategies to enhance the performance of hydrokinetic Darrieus turbine will be categorized into blade modification, augmentation technique and flow control approaches. Moreover, this paper also overs the probability to adapt the wind turbine technology into the hydrokinetic turbine technology with some adjustment.