Design and Fabrication of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine as Micro Power Generator

Energy surrounds us. Innovative energy harvesting techniques are needed to utilize this energy which would otherwise go unused. The renewable energy sources leave no carbon footprint in the atmosphere thus they are environmental friendly. The renewable energy sector in Pakistan is underdeveloped. Pa

Project Title

Design and Fabrication of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine as Micro Power Generator

Project Area of Specialization

Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary

Energy surrounds us. Innovative energy harvesting techniques are needed to utilize this energy which would otherwise go unused. The renewable energy sources leave no carbon footprint in the atmosphere thus they are environmental friendly. The renewable energy sector in Pakistan is underdeveloped. Pakistan still produces a huge chunk of its electric power from fossil fuels. The increased research and investment in the green energy will also help in fighting global warming and pollution. Wind energy is one of the alternate sources of producing electricity.  Darrius wind turbine is a vertical axis wind turbine that converts wind energy into electrical energy using lift force of air. This new energy source is useful in the modern cities because of its low noise generation. These turbines can be used in coastal areas, wind corridors and on the roof of high rise buildings for optimal power generation. Major advantages of these turbines are that the generator and gear box are on the ground, so the rotating tower requires little support and comparatively easy to build and maintain. Using this configuration of wind turbine, we aim at generating energy to be utilized in households and rural areas. 

Project Objectives

Our objective is to design and fabricate a prototype of H-Type Darrieus Wind Turbine that would serve as a basic model for a product to be commercialized. Our project goals are listed below:

• Learning different types of vertical axis wind turbines.
• Designing the airfoil for turbine.
• Designing assembly of turbine.
• Fabrication of components and their assembly.
• Getting optimum output voltage.
• Our project aims at generating a cheap, reliable and convenient source of electricity.
• utilize composite materials to optimize performance.

Project Implementation Method

Following steps and tools will be involved in design and fabrication of darrieus type vertical axis wind turbine.

Our project will complete in four phases:

1. Planning
2. Design 
3. Analysis
4. Fabrication 
5. Testing 

Planning

Planning was done in summer. Work was distributed in this phase of the project. Major decisions were taking in this phase of the project such as usage of fiber as an initial material, use Creo software for designing and will compare theoretical and experimental results.

Designing

Creo parametric designing software was used to design components of turbine and its assembly.

Analysis

• Analysis is done on software and manually that work on blade element momentum theory. As it will be difficult to calculate torque and power for each segment. So we will use MATLAB as a tool to get the results.
• We used Q blade software for testing and evaluating turbine performance.
• Finally compare the values obtained from both the tools.

Fabrication

For airfoil fabrication we used the tail rotor blades of Alouette helicopter.

Testing

Testing will be performed after fabrication. These results are important because they are to be compared with the theoretical.

Benefits of the Project

Pakistan, having 1237 MW of cumulative wind power capacity as of 2021, which makes up almost 6% of total power generation. Unfortunately, has not been able to keep up with the increasing trend of research and development in the wind energy sector, which was one of the reasons why we decided to build a wind turbine as our final year project. Our team would like to study and develop a project that is:

• Renewable
• Energy efficient
• Pragmatic
• Cost effective

The motivation to use vertical axis wind turbines is to overcome the obstacles faced with traditional horizontal axis turbines. These include large diameter (usually between 20-80 meters), need of sensor system, difficulty in maintenance, and constraints of working parameters. They have very high tip speeds, which in turn leads to high noise emission and a greater degree of blade erosion. They also depend on the direction of wind and its speed.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The major objective of our project is to develop a wind turbine as a micro power generator to be used in the coastal areas, wind corridors and along highways for generating electricity. The design parameters meters selected here are important as they will play a significant role in calculations and simulations on Q blade. Considering the objectives, we have set our goal to create 15 to 20 Watt of power as output from our wind turbine. As it can run few LED bulbs, Modems, Routers, or mobile phone chargers.

First parameter selected is the tip speed ratio which is usually about 5-8 for large turbines and 1-3 for small size wind turbine. So we're assuming that tip speed ratio is 1.4 with the wind speed of 4.5 m/s. This wind speed is according to the average range of coastal areas of Pakistan. Air density= ????= 1.225 kg/m3 and dynamic viscosity= ????= 1.81 x 10 -5 kg/ms.

The highest output power and coefficient of power is highest for the three bladed with 0.5-m radius configuration of around 16 Watts and 0.44 respectively. The torque output is also highest for this configuration. With the increasing or decreasing the turbine rotor radius the power drops. Thus, we have selected the three bladed turbine with 0.5-m radius design.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequality, Climate Action, Life on Land

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com