Design and analysis of a straight bladed vertical axis wind turbine blade using analytical and numerical techniques

Abstract

Wind as a source of energy is being used from very long time. It has gained more significance in the current age of energy crisis. Lots of efforts have been made to develop the horizontal axis wind turbines but vertical axis wind turbines did not get much attention over the past couple of decades. Blade is the most important component of a wind turbine which controls the performance of a wind turbine and design of other components attached to it. A concept for the design of a straight symmetrical blade for a small scale vertical axis wind turbine using beam theories for analytical modeling and a commercial software ANSYS 11.0 for numerical modeling is presented in current research. Design parameters of the blade like solidity, aspect ratio, pressure coefficient etc are determined aiming the 1kW power output and the blade design was analyzed at extreme wind conditions where maximum values of deflection and bending stresses were determined at peak values of aerodynamic and centrifugal forces. The design was optimized to attain the structural strength i.e. reduction in deflections and bending stresses. This blade design has high strength and lower material consumption to achieve the low cost of complete rotor assembly of the wind turbine which actually covers more than 50% of the overall wind turbine cost.