Week 2

The following video shows how simple it is to build a small wind turbine at home.

Week 2 : Details on Optimum Position

There are three primary types of wind turbine:

a. VAWT Savonious

b. HAWT towered

c. VAWT Darrieus

For HAWTs, since cyclical turbulence may lead to fatigue failures, most of them are of upwinds.

However, for VAWTs, key advantage is that the turbine does not need to be pointed into the wind to be effective.

Installation for Small-Scale Wind Power Generation
Turbines are often mounted on a tower to raise then above any nearby obstacles.

One rule of thumb:

Turbines should be at least 30 ft (9.1m) higher than anything within 500ft (150m).

Better locations for wind turbines are far away from large upwind obstacles. A small wind turbine can be installed on a roof. Installation issues include the strength of the roof, vibration and the turbulence caused by roof ledge.

The torque ripple is relevant to the stability of turbines.

http://www.greenspec.co.uk/small-wind-turbines.php

Some position may be suitable for installing small wind turbine:

1. roof
2. coast
3. mountains
4. ships
5. plain

                                                                                                          

End of Week 1 Update

After our meeting with the supervisor we decided to concentrate on the following points:

1. Ideal structure for small scale wind generation.
2. Correct positioning
3. Materials to keep cost and maintenance to a minimum
4. Maximising power output

We also have studied the small scale horizontal and vertical wind turbines available on the roof of the EEE building.

Literature

The following report provides an in-depth analysis to small wind energy.

The link for the small-scale wind energy technical report:

http://www.wind-power-program.com/Library/Reports%20on%20the%20natural%20wind/Small-scale%20Wind%20Energy%20-%20Technical%20Report.pdf

Anemometers measure wind speed in several areas throughout the UK. The map below identifies the distribution of the anemometers throughout the country.

 

Industry standard for modelling wind speed distribution:

 

U: wind speed

A: scale parameter of distribution

k: shape parameter of distribution

 

The strength of this wind,

                                                             G (in ms-1), is given by

                                                                    G = Px /(ρ f )

Here

Px is the magnitude of the pressure gradient (in Pa m-1), ρ is the density, and f is the

Coriolis parameter

 

(= 2ΩsinΦ, where Ω = 7.3x10-5 s-1 is the rate of rotation of the Earth and Φ is

the latitude in degrees). At 50 degrees N (as in parts of the UK), this gives G ≅ 7500Px.
                                                                                                            (by Anqi Chen)