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7.7 Wind turbine analysis

solidity
The ratio between the total area occupied by the blades and the swept area is called the solidity

The force the wind exerts on the blades and the torque on the propeller shaft is obviously proportional to solidity. increasing the solidity increases the torque but correspondingly decreases the rate of rotation: high-solidity turbines have great torque but rotate slowly. In a reasonable range of solidity, the efficiency of the turbine is independent of this parameter. Economic considerations dictate the choice of a few slender blades rather than a large number of wide ones.

Wake rotation
Wake: the wave that spreads behind a rotor as wind stream moves across it.

Wake rotates

the lower the solidity (up to a point), the lower the torque and, therefore, the lower the wake rotation loss.

tip speed ratio (6~7)

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Airfoil
Airplane wings, helicopter rotors, and propeller blades, asymmetric The angle between the wind direction and the reference line is called the angle of attack,

lift coefficient and drag coefficient: These coefficients are functions of the angle of attack. They are determined by experiments in wind tunnels.

Observations: Air flow follows the curvature of the top of the airfoil, instead of simply being deflected away Increase of air velocity would increase of pressure difference (Bernoulli s principle)

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Reynolds number
lift coefficient and drag coefficient are dependent on Reynolds number. Dynamic force: Viscous force: Reynolds number

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Aspect Radio
In a rectangular wing, the ratio between the length, H, and the chord, K, is called the aspect ratio, AR.

Low pressure

High pressure

The induced drag can be lessened by 1. increasing the number of wings (or the number of wing tips), 2. increasing the aspect ratio of the wing, 3. tapering the wing so that the chord is smaller near the tip, and 4. placing a vertical obstacle to the flow around the wing tip. Sometimes additional fuel tanks are mounted there.

7.8 Horizontal axis turbines (propeller type)

Design of a wind turbine: Rated power 3MW @ 14m/s 1. How to calculate the required swept area?

2. Reynolds number chord length K 3. # of blade, n=3 Assumed to be 8 4. To follow fluctuation in wind velocity, it is advantageous to have slender, low mass blades. Different sections of the blade contribute different amounts to the power collected by the turbine. 10-20 zones, calculated separately.

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Wind with velocity at v2 flows into the page

Power: Torque:

The contribution of the section to the power

Pi=PAi leads to

Since

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