Objectives/Goals
My
objective: To determine if teardrop shaped fairings added to the 12
blade-to-strut joints of my innovative Vertical Axis Wind Turbine design, which
I constructed in Phase I of this project, will provide more power output as
measured in Watts, and increase the actual turbine performance more than my
VAWT without fairings.
The experimental measurement Power coefficient versus
tip-speed ratio will be used to determine the turbine's performance.
Methods/Materials
1) Design
and build a wind tunnel with diffuser
2) Design
and make a circuit board
3) Test
VAWT without fairings at a wind speed of 3.5m/s and again at 2.5m/s-20 trials
and record Watts
4) Design
and make outside fairings and apply to outside of 12 blade-to-strut joints
5) Design
and make inside fairings and apply to inside of joints making a teardrop shape
6) Test VAWT with fairings at same 2 wind
speeds-20 trials and record Watts
7) Use
mathematical formulas that incorporate Power, air density, swept area of rotor,
RPM and wind speed to calculate power coefficient versus tip-speed ratio for
all trials and means, with and without fairings to show turbine's overall
performance.
Results
After 40
trials, the results showed that my hypothesis was correct. At both wind speeds
the fairings improved the power output as measured in Watts, showing that the
turbine with fairings produced more power. They also made the output more
consistant.
The power
coefficient vs tip-speed ratio increased at both wind speeds. At a wind speed
of 2.5m/s the power coefficient vs tip-speed ratio increased significantly more
with fairings than without because the lower wind speed sees a larger increase
in tip-speed since the fairings helped decrease the drag in the blade-to-strut
joint area.
Conclusions/Discussion
It is
interesting to note that the power coefficient vs tip-speed ratio increased
more at the lower wind speed - the turbine with fairings was able to capture
more power available in the wind because the tip-speed ratio increased more due
to less separation and a decrease in drag.
Overall,
the fairings did improve the turbine's performance because they smoothed out
the flow in the blade-to-strut joints, eliminating the vertices that create
extra drag and performance loss. Another benefit of the fairings was that they
made the blade-to-strut joints stronger which adds more durability. I plan to
pursue the possibility of obtaining a patent for my innovative VAWT design.
Project
Summary
My
project is about determining if teardrop shaped fairings added to the 12
blade-to-strut joints of my VAWT will provide more power output as well as
increasing the turbine's performance measured as power coefficient vs tip-speed
ratio.
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