Abstract
In designing a horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) blade, system integration between the blade design and the performance test of the generator is important. This study shows the aerodynamic design of a HAWT blade operating with an axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) generator. An experimental platform was built to measure the performance curves of the AFPM generator for the purpose of designing the turbine blade. An in-house simulation code was developed based on the blade element momentum (BEM) theory and was used to lay out the geometric shape of the turbine blade, including the pitch angle and chord length at each section. This simulation code was combined with the two-dimensional (2D) airfoil data for predicting the aerodynamic performance of the designed blades. In addition, wind tunnel experiments were performed to verify the simulation results for the various operating conditions. By varying the rotational speeds at four wind speeds, the experimental and simulation results for the mechanical torques and powers presented good agreement. The mechanical power of the system, which maximizes at the best operating region, provided significant information for designing the HAWT blade.
Highlights
A small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) system which provides less than 10 kW output is relatively simpler than large-scale ones in both design and construction because there is no gear box and pitch control system, but traditionally it has drawn little attention due to its low power capacity and economic concerns [1,2,3]
The zone covered with rotational speeds between 700 rpm and 1000 rpm, the generator torques between 2 N-m and 5 N-m and the generator powers between 200 W and 410 W are selected in this study for designing the turbine blade based on the performance of the axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) generator
System integration between the design of the wind turbine blade and the test of the generator performance has become an important issue for developing a HAWT system
Summary
A small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) system which provides less than 10 kW output is relatively simpler than large-scale ones in both design and construction because there is no gear box and pitch control system, but traditionally it has drawn little attention due to its low power capacity and economic concerns [1,2,3]. Goundar and Ahmed [4] designed a 3-bladed horizontal-axis tidal current turbine (HATCT) blade with a 10 m diameter using the BEM theory This theory is applied to predict the aerodynamic performance, resulting in the maximum efficiency of 47.6% at the rated wind speed of 2 m/s and tip speed ratio (TSR) of 4. The structure of the study is laid out as follows: in Section 2 the developed simulation code from the BEM theory to design the HAWT blade and predict its aerodynamic performance is described.
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