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Wind Turbine Results and Discussion

The document summarizes the results and discussion section of a report on designing a small-scale wind turbine. It describes choosing Hackett Island as the turbine's location due to its uninhabited nature and wind speeds. Three blades were selected for lower cost and easier installation compared to four blades. The blade length was set to fit within small turbines and allow back yard installation.

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Rylan Boyd
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807 views5 pages

Wind Turbine Results and Discussion

The document summarizes the results and discussion section of a report on designing a small-scale wind turbine. It describes choosing Hackett Island as the turbine's location due to its uninhabited nature and wind speeds. Three blades were selected for lower cost and easier installation compared to four blades. The blade length was set to fit within small turbines and allow back yard installation.

Uploaded by

Rylan Boyd
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4.

0 Results and Discussion


Before doing the lengthy calculations needed to determine the blade parameters, a few things needed to be decided. We chose Hackett Island because it is an uninhabited island off the coast of Vancouver Island, and has a respectably high consistent wind speed. We chose 3 blades for our design because the efficiency between 3 and 4 blades is very close, and 3 blades costs much less than 4. Also, since our design is meant to be universally usable in various locations, 3 blades makes for easier installation. We chose a blade length of m because it had to fit into the realm of a small scale wind turbine, and that length would make it possible to be installed fairly easily in a users back yard.

4.1 Power and Blade Element #


Knowing how each element reacts to the oncoming wind is important when you want to know the power that the blade produces at each point. This graph (figure 4.1) shows a fairly linear trend which is to be expected the farther out from the center of the axis you go, the amount of torque increases, and the blade is moving faster, therefor producing more power than its closer counterparts.

Power Vs. Blade Element #


1200 1000 Power Output (W) 800 600 400 200 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Blade Element Number

Figure 4.1 Power produced by each increasing blade element number.

4.2 Chord Length and Radius


Wind turbine blades, being very complex, are hard to imagine without actually seeing the blade, or the profile of the blade in a series of graphs. This graph (figure 4.2) helps the mind to understand the basic profile of the blade. As is most common, this blade gets wide near the beginning, and slowly tapers out to the end.

Chord Length Vs. Radius


0.35 0.3 Chord Length (m) -0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0.2 0.7 1.2 Radius (m) 1.7 2.2 2.7 3.2

Figure 4.2 Chord Length and Relative Radios of Blade.

4.3 Axial Thrust Force vs. Blade Element #


Through the use of excel, (displayed by figure 4.3), the axial thrust force can be calculated for each blade element. With this data, the total axial thrust force can be calculated. It is seen in the graph that as the blade element number increases (or the distance from the axis increases) as does the axial thrust force.

Axial Thrust Force Vs. Blade Element #


50 45 40 Axial Thrust Force (N) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Blade Element Number

Figure 4.3 Axial Thrust Force vs. Blade Element #

4.4 Pitch Angle and Radius


The pitch angle of a turbine blade is a very important design parameter. Through the use of the relative flow angle and the angle of attack, the pitch angles were calculated for each section of radius increasing from the center axis. Figure 4.4 shows the graphical data retrieved from this analysis, and helps the mind to further understand the blade profile.

Pitch Angle Vs. Radius


1.4 1.3 1.2 Pitch Angle (rad) 1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0 0.5 1 1.5 Blade Radius (m) 2 2.5 3

Figure 4.4 Pitch Angle vs. Radius

4.5 Power at Different Wind Speeds


Examining the total power produced a different wind speeds gives a consumer an idea of what they will get if they are trying to decide where to use their wind turbine. Figure 4.5 displays this data very simply. For our analysis, it shows that the higher the wind speed, the higher the output power. Whether this continues in the same path, or begins to level off and then drop would require further analysis, but it is reasonable to assume that the power output would begin to level off once wind speeds reached a certain speed.

Power Vs. Wind Speed


10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Wind Speed (m/s)

Figure 4.5 Turbine power at various wind speeds.

Power (W)

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