scholarly journals Multi-Parameter Optimization of Efficiency, Capital Cost and Mass of Ferris Wheel Turbine for Low Wind Speed Regions

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6217
Author(s):  
Kehinde A. Adeyeye ◽  
Nelson Ijumba ◽  
Jonathan S. Colton

The design and development of wind turbines in low-wind-speed areas involves several technical and financial challenges related to maximizing conversion efficiency and minimizing cost. Unfortunately, much of the African continent is dominated by low-wind-speed resources. In this study, a multi-parameter optimization method is used to explore the design of a novel Ferris wheel wind turbine (FWT) technology, which has an 800-kW generation capability. We used the tip speed ratio, lift-to-drag ratio and power coefficient to determine the optimal efficiency by varying the number of blades and rim diameters. The capital cost estimates, as affected by rim diameter and the number of blades, are presented. This paper studies FWTs at their rated wind speeds because wind turbines have their maximum performance at the rated wind speeds, and this allows one to observe the effects of changing the rim diameter and the number of blades without the need to consider the location of the turbine. The results show that reducing the number of spokes by half (from 64 to 32) on the four rim diameters studied decreases the efficiency by less than 0.19%, while reducing the acquisition cost by 42%, installation cost by 42% and mass by 28%. Reducing the number of spokes to a quarter (i.e., from 32 to 16) decreases the efficiency by less than 0.31%, reduces the acquisition and installation costs by 36% and 35.5%, respectively, and the mass by 19.2%, of the four rim diameters studied. The reduction of the number of blades has a significant effect on the efficiency and capital cost with varying rim diameters. This paper shows the potential for Ferris-wheel-based wind turbines for low-wind-speed conditions, such as those that prevail in parts of Africa.

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Palanisamy Mohan Kumar ◽  
Krishnamoorthi Sivalingam ◽  
Teik-Cheng Lim ◽  
Seeram Ramakrishna ◽  
He Wei

Small wind turbines are key devices for micro generation in particular, with a notable contribution to the global wind energy sector. Darrieus turbines, despite being highly efficient among various types of vertical axis turbines, received much less attention due to their starting characteristics and poor performance in low wind speeds. Radically different concepts are proposed as a potential solution to enhance the performance of Darrieus turbine in the weak wind flows, all along the course of Darrieus turbine development. This paper presents a comprehensive review of proposed concepts with the focus set on the low wind speed performance and critically assessing their applicability based on economics, reliability, complexity, and commercialization aspects. The study is first of its kind to consolidate and compare various approaches studied on the Darrieus turbine with the objective of increasing performance at low wind. Most of the evaluated solutions demonstrate better performance only in the limited tip speed ratio, though they improve the low wind speed performance. Several recommendations have been developed based on the evaluated concepts, and we concluded that further critical research is required for a viable solution in making the Darrieus turbine a low speed device.


Author(s):  
A. Tourlidakis ◽  
K. Vafiadis ◽  
V. Andrianopoulos ◽  
I. Kalogeropoulos

Many researchers proposed methods for improving the efficiency of small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs). One of the methods developed to increase the efficiency of HAWTs and to overcome the theoretical Betz limit is the introduction of a converging – diverging casing around the turbine. To further improve the performance of the diffuser a flange is placed at its outlet, which smoothes the flow along the diffuser interior, allowing larger diffusion angles to be utilized. The purpose of this research work is the aerodynamic design and computational analysis of such an arrangement with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). First, a HAWT rotor rotating at 600 RPM was designed with the use of the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) method. The three rotor blades are constructed using the NREL airfoil sections family S833, S834 and S835. The power coefficient of the rotor was optimised in a wind speed range of 5 – 10 m/s, with a maximum value of 0.45 for a wind speed of 7m/s. A full three-dimensional CFD analysis was carried out for the modeling of the flow around the rotor and through the flanged diffuser. The computational domain consisted of two regions with different frames of reference (a stationary and a rotating). The rotating frame rotates at 600 RPM and includes the rotor with the blades. All the simulations were performed using the commercial CFD software package ANSYS CFX. The Shear Stress Transport turbulence model was used for the simulations. Detailed flow analysis results are presented, dealing with the various investigated test cases, a) isolated turbine rotor, b) diffuser without the presence of the turbine, and c) the full turbine – diffuser arrangement for different flange heights and wind speeds. By varying the height of the flange and the wind speed, the effects of the above on the flow field and the power coefficient of the turbine were studied. The CFD resulting power coefficients are also compared and good agreement with existing in the literature experimental data was obtained. The results showed that there is a significant improvement in the performance of the wind turbine (by a factor from 2 to 5 on power coefficient at high blade tip speed ratio) and the proposed modification is particularly attractive for small wind turbines. The particular characteristics of the flow field, that are responsible for this improvement are identified and analysed in detail offering a better understanding of the physical processes involved.


Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hani Muhsen ◽  
Wael Al-Kouz ◽  
Waqar Khan

This work aims at designing and optimizing the performance of a small Horizontal-Axis-Wind-Turbine to obtain a power coefficient (CP) higher than 40% at a low wind speed of 5 m/s. Two symmetric in shape airfoils were used to get the final optimized airfoil. The main objective is to optimize the blade parameters that influence the design of the blade since the small turbines are prone to show low performance due to the low Reynolds number as a result of the small size of the rotor and the low wind speed. Therefore, the optimization process will select different airfoils and extract their performance at the design conditions to find the best sections which form the optimal design of the blade. The sections of the blade in the final version mainly consist of two different sections belong to S1210 and S1223 airfoils. The optimization process goes further by investigating the performance of the final design, and it employs the blade element momentum theory to enhance the design. Finally, the rotor-design was obtained, which consists of three blades with a diameter of 4 m, a hub of 20 cm radius, a tip-speed ratio of 6.5 and can obtain about 650 W with a Power coefficient of 0.445 at a wind-speed of 5.5 m/s, reaching a power of 1.18 kW and a power coefficient of 0.40 at a wind-speed of 7 m/s.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 64-79
Author(s):  
Ahmed Saadi AlJarakh ◽  
Hussain Yousif Mahmood

As the prices of the fuel and power had fluctuated many times in the last decade and new policies appeared and signed by most of the world countries to eliminate global warming and environmental impact on the earth surface and humanity exciting, an urgent need appeared to develop the renewable energy harnessing technologies on the short-term and long-term and one of these promising technologies are the vertical axis wind turbines, and mostly the combined types. The purpose of the present work is to combine a cavity type Savonius with straight bladed Darrieus to eliminate the poor self-starting ability for Darrieus type and low performance for Savonius type and for this purpose, a three-bladed Darrieus type with symmetrical S1046 airfoil was tested experimentally and numerically at different wind speeds (4.5 m/s, 8 m/s and 10 m/s) and it showed a poor self-starting ability at low wind speed although its higher performance at high wind speed. However when adding the cavities in two setup configuration and testing it at the same conditions, it was found that when adding the cavities as reversed cups in the core of the turbine, the performance increased and the power coefficient reached a maximum value at 10 m/s wind speed and it was observed to be 0.0914 , but when the solidity increased by adding three cavities, the performance was higher at low wind speed (4.5 m/s) but it tragically decreased at higher wind speed which indicates that the performance depends on the solidity and the turbine configuration. On the other hand, the numerical simulation showed a good match with the experimental results although it under-predicted the performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-39
Author(s):  
Yasir Abood ◽  
Tariq A. Ismail ◽  
Omar A. Abdulrazzaq ◽  
Haider S. Hussein

In this paper, the influence of blades number on the performance of pico wind turbine was investigated by using a small-motorized axial DC fan with a rated power of 4W. Fixed streaming air blower was used as a source of wind. Varying in wind speed was accomplished by changing the distance from the blower. A resistor equals to the turbine internal resistance was utilized as a load to collect the electrical power across the load at various wind speeds and for fans of different blades (1, 2, and 5). Values of the cut-in and cut-out speeds were extracted from the power plot. Rated power was recorded, as well. The results have shown that the rated power generated by turbine has decreased due to the reduction of blades number (i.e., reduction in solidity) from 2.6W for a 5-bladed turbine to 0.665W for a 2-bladed turbine and to 0.13W for a 1-bladed turbine. Moreover, the cut-in speed (initial electrical generating speed) has increased from 4.9m/s for 5-bladed to 8m/s for 2-bladed, then to 19.15m/s for 1-bladed. These results are explained by the balancing problems during rotation (polar asymmetrical rotor), and it is seen that the reduction of blades has made a sharp reduction in power coefficient.


Author(s):  
Mohammed S. Mayeed ◽  
Adeel Khalid

Wind energy has been identified as an important source of renewable energy. In this study, several wind turbine designs have been analyzed and optimized designs have been proposed for low wind speed areas around the world mainly for domestic energy consumption. The wind speed range of 4–12 mph is considered, which is selected based on the average wind speeds in the Atlanta, GA and surrounding areas. These areas have relatively low average wind speeds compared to various other parts of the United States. Traditionally wind energy utilization is limited to areas with higher wind speeds. In reality a lot of areas in the world have low average wind speeds and demand high energy consumption. In most cases, wind turbines are installed in remote offshore or away from habitat high wind locations, causing heavy investment in installation and maintenance, and loss of energy transfer over long distance. A few more advantages of small scale wind turbines include reduced visibility, less noise and reduced detrimental environmental effects such as killing of birds, when compared to traditional large turbines. With the latest development in wind turbine technology it is now possible to employ small scale wind turbines that have much smaller foot print and can generate enough energy for small businesses or residential applications. The low speed wind turbines are typically located near residential areas, and are much smaller in sizes compared to the large out of habitat wind turbines. In this study, several designs of vertical and horizontal axes wind turbines are modeled using SolidWorks e.g. no-airfoil theme, airfoil blade, Savonius rotor etc. Virtual aerodynamic analysis is performed using SolidWorks Flow simulation software, and then optimization of the designs is performed based on maximizing the starting rotational torque and ultimate power generation capacity. From flow simulations, forces on the wind turbine blades and structures are calculated, and used in subsequent stress analysis to confirm structural integrity. Critical insight into low wind speed turbines is obtained using various configurations, and optimized designs have been proposed. The study will help in the practical and effective utilization of wind energy for the areas around the globe having low average wind speeds.


Author(s):  
Mohammed S. Mayeed ◽  
Adeel Khalid

Today’s wind turbines are designed in a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis types. In this study, several wind turbines are designed for low wind speed areas around the world mainly for domestic energy consumption. The wind speed range of 4–12 mph is considered, which is selected based on the average wind speeds in the Atlanta, GA and surrounding areas. These areas have relatively low average wind speeds compared to various other parts of the United States. Wind energy has been identified as an important source of renewable energy. Traditionally wind energy utilization is limited to areas with higher wind speeds. In reality a lot of areas in the world including Atlanta, GA., have low average wind speeds and demand high energy consumption. In most cases, wind turbines are installed in remote offshore or away from habitat locations, causing heavy investment in installation and maintenance, and loss of energy transfer over long distances. Therefore, the main focus of this study is to extract wind energy domestically at low wind speeds. A few more advantages of small scale wind turbines include reduced visibility, less noise and reduced detrimental environmental effects such as killing of birds, when compared to traditional large turbines. With the latest development in wind turbine technology it is now possible to employ small scale wind turbines that have much smaller foot print and can generate enough energy for small businesses or residential applications. The low speed wind turbines are typically located near residential areas, and are much smaller in sizes compared to the large out of habitat wind turbines. In this study, several designs of wind turbines are modeled using SolidWorks. Virtual aerodynamic analysis is performed using SolidWorks Flow simulation software, and then optimization of the designs is performed based on maximizing the starting rotational torque and acceleration. From flow simulations, forces on the wind turbine blades and structures are calculated, and used in subsequent stress analysis to confirm structural integrity. Critical insight into the low wind speed turbine design is obtained using various configurations and the results are discussed. The study will help identify bottlenecks in the practical and effective utilization of low speed wind energy, and help devise possible remedial plans for the areas around the globe that get low average wind speeds.


2013 ◽  
Vol 569-570 ◽  
pp. 668-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.D. Chougule ◽  
S.R.K. Nielsen ◽  
Biswajit Basu

As Development of smallvertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) for urban use is becoming an interestingtopic both within industry and academia. However, there are few new designs ofvertical axis turbines which are customized for building integration. These aregetting importance because they operate at low rotational speed producing veryless noise during operation, although these are less efficient than HorizontalAxis Wind Turbines (HAWT). The efficiency of a VAWT has been significantlyimproved by H-Darrieus VAWT design based on double airfoil technology asdemonstrated by the authors in a previous publication. Further, it is well knowthat the variation of the blade pitch angle during the rotation improves thepower efficiency. A blade pitch variation is implemented by active blade pitchcontrol, which operates as per wind speed and position of the blade withrespect to the rotor. A double multiple stream tube method is used to determinethe performance of the H-Darrieus VAWT. The power coefficient is compared withthat of a fixed pitch and a variable pitch double airfoil blade VAWT. It isdemonstrated that an improvement in power coefficient by 20% is achieved andthe turbine could start at low wind speed


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Firman Aryanto ◽  
Made Mara ◽  
Made Nuarsa

The wind turbine is a device that converts wind energy into mechanical energy and then converted into electrical energy through a generator. Horizontal axis wind turbines can increase the efficiency to get the maximum power coefficient. One was using the blade numerous. Maximum efisiensi system will increase the number of watts (power) generated so as to obtain a certain number of watts by simply using the number of windmills lessThe object of this research is the performance testing horizontal axis wind turbine with wind speed variation and variation in terms of the number of blade Efisiensi system (𝜂 )  and Tip Speed Ratio (TSR). Research conducted with the wind coming from the source to the Wind Tunnel fan to direct wind. Wind speed is used there are three variations of the 3 m/s, 3.5 m/s, and 4 m/s and varying the amount of blade that is 3, 4, 5 and 6 blade.The results showed that the best 𝜂  values obtained at a maximum wind speed of 4 m / s and the number of blade 5 with a value of 3.07% 𝜂, whereas 𝜂 smallest value obtained at wind speeds of 3 m/s and the number of blade 3 that the value of 0.05% 𝜂. For TSR maximum value at a maximum speed of 4 m/s occurred in the number of blade 5 is equal to λ = 2.11, while the lowest value at wind speeds of 3 m/s resulting in blade number 3 is equal to λ = 1.49.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
Tabrej Khan ◽  
Balbir Singh ◽  
Mohamed Thariq Hameed Sultan ◽  
Kamarul Arifin Ahmad

As the world focuses more on clean and green Earth, wind energy plays a significant role. Wind energy is a renewable source of energy that can cope with the ongoing global fossil fuel crisis. The wind energy converters like wind turbines have been studied a lot in terms of design and performance. The current work includes analyzing the output effects of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) with a modified blade configuration at specific wind speeds. A numerical investigation is carried out using two different numerical software on the chosen airfoil used in blade design validated with the analysis carried out in open-loop wind tunnels. The study is divided into two phases: first, the selected airfoil is tested experimentally and using CFD, and then the findings are compared to those of the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign wind tunnel tests at low Reynolds numbers. The second phase includes the numerical analysis based on the blade element momentum method and non-linear lifting line simulations of modified blade design at high Reynolds number. The numerical results of rotor performance analysis have been compared to existing experimental results. The findings of all numerical investigations agree with those of the experiments. An optimal value of the power coefficient is obtained at a particular tip speed ratio close to the desired value for large wind turbines. For maximum power, this study investigates the optimum pitch angle. The work demonstrated the improved HAWT rotor blade design to produce better aerodynamic lift and thus improve performance.


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