Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 2018, 6, 76-105 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jpee ISSN Online: 2327-5901 ISSN Print: 2327-588X Aerodynamic Performance and Vibration Analyses of Small Scale Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine with Various Number of Blades Mosfequr Rahman 1 , Emile Maroha 1 , Adel El Shahat 2 , Valentin Soloiu 1 , Marcel Ilie 1 1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA 2 Electrical Engineering Department, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA Abstract The need to generate power from renewable sources to reduce demand for fossil fuels and the damage of their resulting carbon dioxide emissions is now well understood. Wind is among the most popular and fastest growing sources of alternative energy in the world. It is an inexhaustible, indigenous resource, pollution-free, and available almost any time of the day, especially in coastal regions. As a sustainable energy resource, electrical power generation from the wind is increasingly important in national and international energy policy in response to climate change. Experts predict that, with proper devel- opment, wind energy can meet up to 20% of US needs. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) are the most popular because of their higher efficiency. The aerodynamic characteristics and vibration of small scale HAWT with various numbers of blade designs have been investigated in this numerical study in order to improve its performance. SolidWorks was used for designing Computer Aided Design (CAD) models, and ANSYS software was used to study the dynamic flow around the turbine. Two, three, and five bladed HAWTs of 87 cm rotor diameter were designed. A HAWT tower of 100 cm long and 6 cm diameter was considered during this study while a shaft of 10.02 cm diameter was chosen. A good choice of airfoils and angle of attack is a key in the designing of a blade of rough surface and maintaining the maxi- mum lift to drag ratio. The S818, S825 and S826 airfoils were used from the root to the tip and 4˚ critical angle of attack was considered. In this paper, a more appropriate numerical models and an improved method have been adopted in comparable with other models and methods in the literature. The wind flow around the whole wind turbine and static behavior of the HAWT rotor was solved using Moving Reference Frame (MRF) solver. The HAWT How to cite this paper: Rahman, M., Ma- roha, E., El Shahat, A., Soloiu, V. and Ilie, M. (2018) Aerodynamic Performance and Vibration Analyses of Small Scale Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine with Various Number of Blades. Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 6, 76-105. https://doi.org/10.4236/jpee.2018.66006 Received: November 27, 2017 Accepted: June 25, 2018 Published: June 28, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access DOI: 10.4236/jpee.2018.66006 Jun. 28, 2018 76 Journal of Power and Energy Engineering