Small Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Blade for Low Wind Speed Operation

P. Pathike; T. Katpradit; P. Terdtoon; P. Sakulchangsatjatai

doi:10.6180/jase.2013.16.4.02

Small Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Blade for Low Wind Speed Operation

P. Pathike This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.¹, T. Katpradit¹, P. Terdtoon¹ and P. Sakulchangsatjatai¹

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Thailand 50200

Received: November 8, 2012
Accepted: May 18, 2013
Publication Date: December 1, 2013

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.2013.16.4.02

ABSTRACT

At low wind speed, modern commercial wind turbines have low efficiency for electricity generation. This research hence aims to design a new small wind turbine blade that is suitable for practical applications. Higher torque has to be obtained properly to generate electricity. In order to design and evaluate performance, our mechanical model has been developed based on Blade Element Momentum theory. And, the model is consequently employed to determine the optimized blade shape with the rotor diameter of the wind turbine no higher than 3 m, a design wind velocity of 6 m/s, using 12 V and 24 V battery chargers. The new wind turbine blade has been manually made from fiberglass (GRP) with safety factors of 4 (for 12 V battery) and 2.8 (for 24 V battery). Experimental study is conducted by testing both the commercial blade and our new blade with a specific wind turbine set. It is found that, at designed wind velocity, the efficiency of the novel wind turbine blade of 27% is obtained while that of the commercial wind turbine is only 16%.

Keywords: Small Wind Turbine, Low Wind Speed Wind Turbine, Wind Turbine Blade, Blade Shape Design

REFERENCES

[1] Information on http://www.dede.go.th.
[2] Chaichana, T. and Chaitep, S., “Wind Power Potential and Characteristic Analysis of Chiang Mai, Thailand,” Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, Vol. 24, pp. 14751479 (2010). doi: 10.1007/s12206-010- 0415-3
[3] Clausen, P. D. and Wood, D. H., “Research and Development Issues for Small Wind Turbine,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 16, pp. 922927 (1999). doi: 10. 1016/S0960-1481(98)00316-4
[4] Jonkman, J. M., “Modeling of the UAE Wind Turbine for Refinement of FAST_AD.,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, U.S.A., Technical Report: NREL/TP-500-34755 (2003).
[5] Pathike, P., Katpradit, T., Terdtoon, P. and Chaitep, S., “Optimum Shape of Airfoil for Small Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine,” The Third International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Well-Being (STISWB III), Vietnam, Vol. 1215, pp. 4556 (2011).
[6] Buhl, M. L., “A New Empirical Relationship between Thrust Coefficient and Induction Factor for the Turbulent Windmill State,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, U.S.A., Technical Report: NREL/ TP-500-36834 (2005).
[7] Soylemez, M. S., “On the Thermoeconomical Optimization of Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger HPHE for Waste Heat Recovery,” Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 44, pp. 25092517 (2003). doi: 10.1016/S0196- 8904(03)00007-4
[8] Information on http://www.engineo.co.th.
[9] Hansman, H. and Wismar, H., “Composite,” ASM Handbook/Extraction Polyester Rasin, FB MVU, Werkstofftechnologie/Kunststofftechnik (2003).