Intelligent wind turbine unit with tandem rotors (discussion of prototype performances in field tests)

Abstract

The authors had invented the unique wind turbine unit composed of the large-sized front wind rotor, the small-sized rear wind rotor and the peculiar generator with the inner and the outer rotational armatures. The rotational torques of both armatures/wind rotors are counter-balanced, while the rotational speeds and the directions are adjusted automatically in response to the wind conditions. The prototype unit is composed of the tandem wind rotors, whose front and rear diameters are 2 m and 1.33 m, and the double rotational armatures type synchronous generator. The unit was boarded on a pick-up type vehicle in the field test. The performance of the unit is significantly affected not only by the blade setting angles of both wind rotors, but also by the bulb load. The test results suggest that more improvement is necessary for the blade profiles as tandem wind rotors taking account of the flow interaction between both wind rotors.