Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Steven Kreibach
Wichita State University
2
If the lower power density of 233 W/m is used, that
would increase the Cp estimate to 0.20. It’s nice to have
a super efficient turbine. But this is not the same
problem that automobiles have to try and conserve an
expensive fuel. Wind turbine fuel is free. The only
relevant argument for having a more efficient turbine is
The same equation is used to determine what size rotor wooden twisted tapered blade is more difficult to carve
area or efficiency of turbine will be needed to produce compared to un-twisted un-tapered blade and requires
17,000 KWh/year. The first equation below shows that a more material thickness to accommodate the twist.
Cp of .28 is needed if the rotor diameter were to remain Despite these problems, the project statement suggests
constant. the possibility of sourcing blades from a manufacturer
for comparison purposes. An example of such blades
are below and are available from
www.magnets4less.com.
Since the goal of this paper is to compare 2 different Several important differences between the Breezy
blades, the attempt is made to reach a higher efficiency. blades and a possible replacement affect the
performance of the 2 different blades.
2. Estimate the coefficient of performance of the
Breezy 5.5 homebuilt wood 4 blade design and • 4 blades vs 3 blades
determine the viability of changing the blades to • Twisted vs un-twisted blade
commercially produced composite 3 blade design. • Tapered chord vs un-tapered chord
• Tip speed ratio of 6 gives 200 rpm vs the Breezy
The Cp of Breezy 5.5 was determined in the last section 119 rpm rotational speed
to be 0.20 and so the hope is that a twisted and tapered
blade would have the performance increase that we In addition to these differences, each blade must
desire for a Cp of 0.28. operate at various wind speeds which make the
blade operate at different angles of attack. The
The Breezy design uses a rotor with 4 blades made of interactions of all the different variables at each
wood. Each blade is carved out of a single 2x12, 10 ft radial location combine to produce the rotor
long and have an un-twisted and un-tapered airfoil performance vs wind speed. In this paper the Blade
shape which is constant along the length of the blade Element Momentum (BEM) method is used to
similar to a NACA 4412 airfoil. This airfoil will be used evaluate the 4 bladed Breezy rotor and the 3 bladed
to analyze both the breezy blades and is assumed to be composite rotor and compare their output at a
the airfoil of the prospective new blades for comparison variety of wind speeds. The designers of Breezy 5.5
purposes. Blade manufacturers don’t share their design measured the energy generation at the grid
and manufacturing processes because they are of a connected power meter to be 12,000 KWh/year of
competitive nature. Therefore this assumption is the generation [1] and so this provides a point of
only practical choice. reference.
The Breezy blades are designed to be easy to produce The BEM method is an iterative method from [5] and this
and that is a big benefit to the home-builder. Wood is paper includes Prandtl’s Tip Loss Factor in step 3 and
inexpensive, fatigue resistant, and easy to maintain. If the Glauert Correction for High Values of the axial
a blade breaks, another one can be made the same induction factor a in step 7.
way the originals were made to begin with. The wood
blades simplicity comes from having no twist or taper The BEM method is as follows from [5]. Begin by
which makes it easy to use a hand held portable planer dividing the blade into sections.
to form the initial airfoil shape.
and a’
Figure 6: variation of Cl and Cd with angle of attack for
various Re [4]
For a>ac, ac ~ .2 Where Pn and Pt are the force per unit blade
length normal and tangential to the rotor plane
respectively at that radial distance on the blade.
Then compute the force for each section from case where the probability distribution of the different
I=1 to N. The formula below is the point slope wind speeds is needed to see if the shifting of the blades
equation for a linear assumption between peak power wind speed is useful or not. This report did
sections where A is the slope and B is the y not pursue that analysis.
intercept.
Figure 9.1: Power output vs wind speed for Breezy and Solidity also changes the characteristics of the efficiency
for the new blades. curves as shown in Figure 12. The more the blades, the
better low tip speed performance
The optimal angle of attack α is chosen based on the lift Figure 13: Tail Furling
and drag curves and Φ is computed and used in the
BEM method. Another method of controlling the max power input is
stall regulation. The following quote sheds some light on
The chord length c is calculated with the following this method: “Stall regulation provides the simplest
formula means of controlling the maximum power generated by a
turbine to suit the sizes of the installed generator and
gearbox and until recently, at the time of writing, is the
most commonly adopted control method.” [4]
b. Rotor hub
c. Drive shaft The high stresses resulting from an assumed load case
indicates the need to determine the actual yaw rate seen
in service on a small wind turbine. It also underscores
the importance of appropriate radii on the driveshaft
where the diameter changes so as to reduce stress
concentrations.
d. Tail boom
Figure 30: Tail structure close-up showing 6 ksi under The stresses in this structure under operating and
light load. gyroscopic loads is quite low at 3 ksi. The deflection is
about .020”. What isn’t shown is the nacelle cover that’s
The high stresses in figure 30 occur on the aft standing made of 16 gage sheet metal (.060 thick). It is fastened
leg of an angle iron support in bending. A quick fix for along the sides of the bedplate to the upstanding leg of
this is to use a square channel section. This will add angle iron. It’s also fastened along the entire front and
stiffness as well as reducing the peak loads in that back creating a tension and shear member. The
piece. This isn’t necessary depending on the confidence inclusion of such a substantial stiffening member can
that this analysis represents the maximum load on the only be assumed to make the stresses and deflections
part. irrelevant.
CONCLUSION
1. Timothy McCall and Alan Plunkett, Breezy 5.5, a: axial induction factor (AKA, slowdown factor)
Derby KS, Prairie Turbines, LLC, 2005
2. Dan Bartman & Dan Fink, Homebrew Wind Power, a’: radial induction factor
Masonville, CO, Buckville Publications LLC, 2009.
3. Gary L. Johnson, Wind Energy Systems, Electronic A: area of rotor
Edition, 2001.
4. Tony Burton, David Sharpe, Nick Jenkins, & Ervin ρ: density of air
Bossanyi, Wind Energy Handbook, England, John
Wiley & Sons, 2001. z: height above the ground
5. Martin O. L. Hansen, Aerodynamics of Wind
Turbines, 2nd Edition, Sterling, VA, 2008. u: power density
Steven Kreibach is a design engineer at Spirit V0: far upstream wind speed
Aerosystems. He has a BS in mechanical engineering
from the University of Kansas (1995) and is working on a Vrel: apparent wind speed in rotating airfoil frame of
master’s degree in aerospace structures at Wichita State reference
University. He lives at 11000 E 39th St. S, Derby KS
67037 (where he intends to build a wind turbine) and can Φ: angle between apparent wind and the rotor plane
be reached at skreibach@yahoo.com, or 316-686-1611.
α: angle of attack of airfoil relative to Vrel
D: diameter of rotor
σ: rotor solidity
μ: kinematic viscosity
R: blade radius