Development of Flapping Type Wind Turbine System for 5 kW Class Hybrid Power Generation System

Abstract

Even though the differential drag type machines of the vertical wind turbines are a bit less efficient than the lift type machines such as Darrieus type machines, they have an advantage of low starting torque. The flapping blade type wind turbine is a specific type of the differential drag machines, and it has no need for orientation as well as quite low starting torque. This work is to develop an innovative 5kW class flapping type vertical wind turbine system which will be applicable to a hybrid power generation system driven by the diesel engine and the wind turbine. The parametric study was carried out to decide an optimum aerodynamic configuration of the wind turbine blade. In order to evaluate the designed blade, the subscale wind tunnel test and the performance test were carried out, and their test results were compared with the analysis results.