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 consistent.
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 vortices 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.
Project by Andrew A. Asper
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