Wind turbine concepts for domestic wind power generation at low wind quality sites

Abstract

An overview of extant wind turbine designs is presented. Each concept is evaluated for potential for micro-wind production under poor wind quality situations, such as those seen in densely populated, suburban, or sparsely forested regions. It was concluded that the Savonius turbine and the Savonius-Darrieus Hybrid turbines were the most suited designs out of the seven that were investigated. In addition, several types of materials for micro-wind turbines were explored. Two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations were run with the Savonius, and Savonius-Darrieus hybrid turbines with wind speeds 3 m/s, 5 m/s, 7 m/s and 10 m/s. Power generated by the turbines under each wind speed as well as the power coefficients and Tip Speed Ratios of the turbines were determined, and it was found that the Savonius turbine simulated had the maximum power coefficient of 0.31 at TSR = 0.97 and the Hybrid turbine had 0.32 at TSR = 2.24. It was also concluded that the Hybrid turbine generates more power than the Savonius turbine for all wind speeds except for 3 m/s. The maximum power output by any turbine simulated in this study was 157 W.