%0 Journal Article %T Variable pitch control for vertical %A A Immas %A F Silvert %A P Deglaire %A R Fuchs %A S Horb %J Wind Engineering %@ 2048-402X %D 2018 %R 10.1177/0309524X18756972 %X NENUPHAR aims at developing the next generation of large-scale floating offshore vertical-axis wind turbine. To challenge the horizontal-axis wind turbine, the variable blade pitch control appears to be a promising solution. This article focuses on blade pitch law optimization and resulting power and thrust gain depending on the operational conditions. The aerodynamics resulting from the implementation of a variable blade pitch control are studied through numerical simulations, either with a three-dimensional vortex code or with two-dimensional Navier-stokes simulations (two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics). Results showed that the three-dimensional vortex code used as quasi-two-dimensional succeeded to give aerodynamic loads in very good agreement with two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation results. The three-dimensional-vortex code was then used in three-dimensional configuration, highlighting that the variable pitch can enhance the vertical-axis wind turbine power coefficient (Cp) by more than 15% in maximum power point tracking mode and decrease it by more than 75% in power limitation mode while keeping the thrust below its rated value %K Vertical-axis wind turbine %K individual pitch control %K variable pitch %K power maximization %K thrust limitation %K torque limitation %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0309524X18756972