Design and Testing of a New Small Wind Turbine Blade

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiyue Song ◽  
William David Lubitz

A small wind turbine blade was designed using blade element momentum (BEM) method for a three bladed, fixed pitch 1 kW horizontal axis wind turbine. The new blades were fabricated, fit to a Bergey XL 1.0 turbine, and tested using a vehicle-based platform at the original designed pitch angle, plus with 5 deg and 9 deg of additional pitch. The new blades had better aerodynamic performance than the original Bergey XL 1.0 blades at high speed, but in some cases at lower speeds the original blades performed better. The results demonstrated that selecting the blade pitch angle on a rotor is a tradeoff between starting performance and power output in high winds. The BEM simulations were evaluated against the test data and demonstrated that the BEM simulations predicted the rotor performance with reasonable accuracy.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Ranjeet Agarwala ◽  
Robert A. Chin

The development and evaluation of a nonlinear pitch controller for wind turbine blades and the design and modeling of an associated actuator and controller was examined. The pitch actuator and controller were modeled and analyzed using Pneumatically Actuated Muscles (PAMs) for actively pitching the wind turbine blade. PAMs are very light and have a high specific work and a good contraction ratio. Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID) controllers were envisaged for the wind turbine pitching system at the blade tip due to its routine usage in the wind turbine industry. Deployment of controllers enables effective pitch angle tracking for power abatement at various configurations. The controller was subjected to four pitch angle trajectory signals. PID controllers were tuned to achieve satisfactory performance when subjected to the test signal. Low pitch angle errors resulted in satisfactory blade pitch angle tracking. Deployment of these controllers enhances wind turbine performance and reliability. The data suggest that the pitch system and actuator that was modeled using PAMs and PID controllers is effective providing robust pitch angle trajectory tracking. The results suggest that the proposed design can be successfully integrated into the family of wind turbine blade pitch angle controller technologies.


Author(s):  
Ali Al-Abadi ◽  
YouJin Kim ◽  
Jin-young Park ◽  
Hyunjin Kang ◽  
Özgür Ertunc ◽  
...  

An optimization method that changes the control strategy of the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) from passive- to active-pitch has been developed. The method aims to keep the rated power constant by adjusting the blade pitch angle while matching the rotor and the drive torques. The method is applied to an optimized wind turbine model. Further, numerical simulations were performed to validate the developed method and for further investigations of the flow behavior over the blades.


Author(s):  
Fouad Mohammad ◽  
Emmanuel Ayorinde

The aerodynamic loadings that act on the blade of a horizontal axis wind turbine change as a function of time due to the instantaneous change of the wind speed, the wind direction and the blade position. The new contribution in this study is the introduction of a simplified non CFD based procedure for the calculation of all the aerodynamic loadings acting on a wind turbine blade. The premise of the current simplified model is that (a) the forces can be modeled by a set of point loads rather than distributed pressures, and (b) the magnitudes of these point loads can be estimated using the below load formulas, (c) an interpolation scheme needed to have all computed forces and moments as a function of the blade lengthwise x. Considering a 14m blade length and utilizing a time dependent set of parameters such as angle of attack, material and air density, wind and blade speed, flow angle, yaw, pitch angles, the centrifugal forces (along x-direction of the blade length), the cross-sectional forces (Fy and Fz) and the twisting moment of the blade (about the x-direction) were calculated for each of all the given time steps. After that the authors explain how to interpolate the calculated loadings (forces and twisting moment) and the right formulas to compute the aerodynamic load vector (the right side of the dynamic equations of motion).


Author(s):  
R. S. Amano ◽  
Ryan Malloy

The project has been completed, and all of the aforementioned objectives have been achieved. An anemometer has been constructed to measure wind speed, and a wind vane has been built to sense wind direction. An LCD module has been acquired and has been programmed to display the wind speed and its direction. An H-Bridge circuit was used to drive a gear motor that rotated the nacelle toward the windward direction. Finally, the blade pitch angle was controlled by a swash plate mechanism and servo motors installed on the generator itself. A microcontroller has been programmed to optimally control the servo motors and gear motor based on input from the wind vane and anemometer sensors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (6 Part B) ◽  
pp. 4643-4650
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
Wen-Feng Guo ◽  
Kotaro Tagawa ◽  
Bin Zhao

Icing accretion on wind turbine will degrade its performance, resulting in reduction of output power and even leading to accidents. For solving this problem, it is necessary to predict the icing type and shape on wind turbine blade, and evaluate the variation of aerodynamic characteristics. In this paper the icing types and shapes in presence of airfoil, selected from blade of 1.5 MW horizontal-axis wind turbine, are simulated under different ambient temperatures and icing time lengths. Based on the icing simulation results, the aerodynamic characteristics of icing airfoils are simulated, including lift and drag coefficient, lift-drag ratio, etc. The simulation results show that the glaze ice with two horns presents on airfoil under high ambient temperature such as -5?C. When ambient temperatures are low, such as -10?C and -15?C, the rime ices with streamline profiles present on the airfoil. With increase in icing time the lift forces and coefficients decrease, and the drag ones increase. According to the variations of lift-drag ratios of icing airfoil, the aerodynamic performance of airfoil deteriorates in the presence of icing. The glaze ice has great effect on aerodynamic characteristics of airfoil. The research findings lay theoretical foundation for icing wind tunnel experiment.


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