Chapter II- Related Learning Literature

World population and standards of living increase there is an ever growing demand for

energy. This increase in energy creates significant demand for energy created by fossil

fuels, which the world has a limited amount of and carbon emissions can lead to global

warming. The fears of diminishing natural resources and concern of significant climate

change as a result of the burning of fossil fuels has created great worldwide interest in

clean renewable energy that can meet the electrical demands of the world. One

common strategy is to use wind turbines that generate electricity from wind. (Deisadze,

L. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Evaluation and Design, [Link], April 2013)

Wind is generated from solar energy unevenly heating the earth. This uneven

heating creates pressure changes in the atmosphere, generating wind. This wind can

then be harnessed by a wind turbine. As the wind pushes the blades of a turbine, a

generator attached to the axis of the shaft and when spun creates electricity that can be

sent to the grid and used in households for electricity. ([Link], 2012)

Wind turbines are a clean way to generate power, yet there are many significant

problems with them as well. One problem is that they are extremely expensive to design

and install, and in order to generate enough energy for communities and cities require

space for wind farms. Another issue is that they have to be created in locations where

there is enough wind energy to generate enough electricity to justify the cost of the

machine. ([Link], 2012)

the wind. Knowing this information prior to setting up a wind turbine is imperative.

Calculating the average power from wind is a simple equation: Equation

1 indicates the importance of wind speed in power generation because power

generation increases proportionally as wind increases to the third power. Knowing the

power density will allow wind turbines to be placed in efficient locations for generating

electricity. (Deisadze, L. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Evaluation and Design,

[Link], April 2013)

Wind Speed another important factor is the height of the turbine rotor. One of the major

reasons wind turbine costs are so high is because the higher altitude the turbine is

located, the higher the velocity of the wind, which in turn increases the power output

from the generator. Equation 2 is the power model which

estimates the effect that height has on wind. Equation 2 V(zref) is the reference point

that can be looked up in a chart, z is the height above the ground, and alpha is the

power law exponent in which is affected by the surface geometry of the land and needs

to be researched. ((Deisadze, L. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Evaluation and Design,

[Link], April 2013)

The two major classifications of wind turbines are horizontal and vertical axis wind

turbines, (HAWT and VAWT). The horizontal axis wind turbines are the most common

and have blades rotate on an axis parallel to the ground. The horizontal axis axil is
attached by bearings at the top of the tower were the blades are also attached to the

axel. 12 The axil is enclosed in a nacelle. The nacelle is where the gearbox and

generator are located. Horizontal axis wind turbines utilize airfoil design to generate the

spinning of the blades. The concept of the wind foil of a HAWT blade is that the wind

travels over the top of the blade rather than under it, creating less pressure on top of the

blade generating lift and creating rotational movement . These turbines spin on a

vertical axis. One of the major problems with vertical axis wind turbines is that an initial

force is required to start the turbine’s spinning. Another issue is that they are difficult to

be designed for high altitudes. The blades on a vertical axis wind turbine can utilize an

airfoil design like the VAWT; however a VAWT can also use blades that directly face the

wind. ((Deisadze, L. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Evaluation and Design,

[Link], April 2013)

The primary objective of this paper is to investigate a cyclonic domestic scale vertical

axis wind turbine with semicircular shaped blades under a range of wind speeds. A 16-

bladed rotor was initially designed and itstorques and angular speeds were measured

over a range of wind speeds using a wind tunnel. Additionally, a cowling device was

developed to enhance the turbine efficiency by directing the air flow from the rear

blades into the atmosphere. Another 8-bladed rotor was also manufactured to

investigate the effect of blade number on the maximum power generation. The

aerodynamic performance of the cowling device wasalso investigated. Maximum power

curves as a function of wind speeds were established for each configuration. The

results indicated that the 16-bladed wind turbine can be used for domestic scale wind

power generation. The results show that the cowling device has positive effect to
increase the rotor speed to a significant amount. With the use of the cowling device, the

average rotor speed increased by about 26% for the 16-bladed rotor compared to the

baseline configuration. A significant increase (about 40%) of rotor speed was also found

for the 8-bladed rotor with the cowling device. The results also indicated that the cowling

device can be used to increase the power output of this cyclonic type vertical axis wind

turbine especially with a reduce number of blades. (Bavin, L., Chowdhury H.,

Experimental study of cyclonic vertical axis wind turbine for domestic scale power

generation , [Link], Dec 2020)

There are number of sources for generation of power but in the recent years wind

energy shown its potential as the clean source of energy and contributing to the high-

energy demands of the world. Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) is the best option for

the area, which are under load sheading. Thus, in this paper, VAWT blades for low

average wind speed regions like Al Khobar in Saudi arabia is designed and

implemented. Performance and power produced are investigated and utilized in the

design and the economic analysis. An experimental and theoretical review on the

performance of Savonius VAWT is presented. The turbine was made of Aluminium alloy

with a blade angle of 160 degree and maximum coefficient of power, Cp, of 0.286. The

results of this current study showed that the power output, with speed of minimum

speed of 12-15 m/s generate 40-80 watts with an efficiency of 31~35%. (Jendoubi, N.,

Study of a vertical axis wind turbine for low speed regions in Saudi Arabia,

[Link], September 2020)

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) represent a unique form of power-generating

technology. Historically, they have been relegated to fulfilling a small niche market in
commercially available wind turbines due to their “yaw-less” design. Current VAWT

designs lag behind their Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) counterparts in terms of

efficiency, as measured by their power coefficient. However, suggested that these types

of wind turbines may be better suited for wind farm installations. (Whittlesey, R.,

Vertical Axis winds Turbines, [Link], 2017)