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Application of small-scale wind power system in livestock buildings

Article  in  Acta horticulturae · October 2013

DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1008.35

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 Application of Small-Scale Wind Power System in Livestock Buildings

S.-W. Hong, I.-B. Lee, I.-H. Seo, J.P. Bitog, K.-S. Kwon
Department of Rural Systems Engineering and Research Institute for Agriculture and Life
Sciences, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University
Republic of Korea

Keywords: Blade element momentum theory (BEMT), computational fluid dynamics

(CFD), exhaust fan flow, wind power generation, wind turbine

Abstrat
The objective of this study is to develop a small-scale wind power system utilizing
ventilation fan flow of livestock buildings. The characteristics and availability of the
ventilation fan flow for the use of wind power generation were evaluated through field
experiments and simulation works. The field experiments using typical 50-inch
ventilation fan indicated that the wind flow behind the ventilation fan had a good
possibility of power generation with its high and steady wind speeds. The performance
degradation caused by the wind turbine was also tested but concluded to be allowable.
The flow profiles of the ventilation fan for the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
simulation was created by combining the direction vectors analyzed from tuft
visualization test and the flow predicted by the rotating fan modelling. The new several
wind turbines were designed by the blade element momentum theory *BEMT) and
optimisation processes, and their aerodynamic performances were tested through the CFD
simulation and field experiments. The permanent magnet synchronous generator was
made and used for the wind power system. The prototype was tested in field experiments
and it continuously produced almost 300 W of electricity. Considering the ventilation fan
consumed 1 kW, the wind power system could recover almost 30% of the consumed
energy by the ventilation fan.

INTRODUCTION
The worldwide energy crisis and environmental problems have raised interest in
alternative energy sources towards the end of 20th. The current trend of Korean
government has been towards new energy supply by new and renewable energy sources
under the paradigm of “Green growth” (KK, 2008). The new and renewable energy
sources are classified as 8 renewable sources, such as solar, biomass, wind, hydropower,
geothermal, etc., and 3 new sources, such as fuel cell, etc. Agricultural industry, which
has been significantly affected by energy savings, is also eager to employ the new and
clean energy sources into crop and livestock production (RDA, 2008).
The wind energy among the alternative sources is the technology to convert the
kinetic energy of wind into a useful electricity or heat by utilizing wind turbine.
Compared to other new and renewable energy sources, the wind energy is clean and
comparatively cheap during energy conversion. It also needs less land for building site
and can be combined with farming enabling efficient land use (KEMC, 2008). However
in spite of many advantages the use of wind energy is very limited in Korea due to its
poor wind conditions. A few regions near a shore or a high mountain were judged to be
profitable but only for large-scale wind power system. In case of small-scale wind power
system, the utilizability of small-scale turbine is more limited because the small-scale
wind power system is much harder to obtain a high wind speed. Considering the wind
energy available for energy conversion is proportional to the cube of wind speed, high-
speed and stable wind condition is the fundamental requirement for efficient electricity
production. However the wind speed in a relatively low elevation where the small-scale
turbine is installed is considerably low and continuously changing. In this regard, several
studies tried to produce the electricity by installing the wind power system on the roof of
a high-rise building; however, the small-scale wind turbine combined with natural wind
still has limits of unstable and low power production (Park and Kyung, 2003; Choi and
Chang, 2009).
In the contrast to the natural wind, artificially generated wind flow can be a good
alternative for this problem. Ventilation fans in a livestock building operate all year to
release a harmful gas out of the building and control an indoor thermal condition. The
wind behind the fan is exhausted and useless any more for indoor mechanisms but very
dense and high-speed wind appropriate for wind power generation. Therefore reutilization
of the exhaust flow can be very effective to reduce the energy burden for farm holder.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The target ventilation fan is a commercial ventilation fan with 50 inches in
diameter and 1 kW of the electric power consumption, typically used in many broiler
houses. The size of the fan frame is 137 cm X 137 cm and shutters, which are only
opened when the fan is operated, are installed to decrease the vertical directionality of the
fan flow. Wind velocities were measured both near rear side of the fan and on leeward
area (Fig. 1) using multi-channel hot-wire anemometer (System 6243, Kanomax, Japan).
To identify the flow pattern created by rotation of the ventilation fan turbine, flow vectors
at many positions of fan rear side were measured and computed by tuft flow visualization
test. The sewing cottons of 5 cm were tied at 169 positions and blown by the fan flow.
The dyed cottons were photographically recorded and analysed by MATLAB (ver. 7, The
MathWorks, Inc., USA) to compute the flow vectors.
The design of the wind turbine blade was carried out by the BEMT combined
with Prandtl’s tip loss factor. Applying Prandtl’s loss factor to BEM method, two
formulas regarding “a” and “a’” are generated as shown in Eq. (1) and (2) (Burton, 2001),
even though BEM method has slightly different forms according to each induction and
assumption.

af 1  af  
 C L cos   C D sin  (1)
1  a  2
4 sin2 


a 'f
 C L sin  C D cos   1  a  (2)
1  a ' 4 sin cos   1  af 

  2 
2  N 1        
f ( )  cos 1 exp    1    
   2    1  a   
   (3)
 Where  is the solidity of the rotor (= NC 2R ),C is the chord length, C L is
the lift coefficient of the airfoil, C D is the drag coefficient of the airfoil, f is the Prandtl’s
loss factor,  ( r /R ) is the radial blade coordinate (r) normalized with respect to the
blade radius (R), N is the number of blades, and  is the tip speed ratio (TSR) (= R  V 1 ).
The lift and drag coefficients were estimated by XFOIL software (ver. 6.9, Mark
Drela, USA). The BEMT was coded by MATLAB to design the rotor blade and assess the
blade performance. To select proper airfoils for turbine blade, 128 airfoils among NACA
airfoil series were used for blade design and the most effective one was selected by
optimisation processes. The performance of the turbines designed by the BEMT was also
tested by numerical simulations using FLUENT (ver. 6, Fluent Inc., USA). The designed
wind turbines were made of wood and epoxy resin by computerized numerical control
(CNC) machine and combined with generator, invertors, and accessories to finish the
wind power system. The electricity produced by the system was measured by AC load
tester which controls various values of electric resistance. The wind power system was
also installed and tested in the broiler house.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In field experiment, high and stable wind condition was performed on the leeward
area of the ventilation fan. The velocity at the rear side of the ventilation fan was almost
10 m/s on average and maximum reached 12 m/s. the velocity was decreased to 6.5~7 m/s
at the distance of 2 m from the ventilation fan and it still shows high wind energy
appropriate for wind power generation. However, wind turbine installed closer to the
ventilation fan would definitely produce much more energy.
The vector field at the rear side of the fan was calculated using the measurements
and the image analysis of the tuft flow visualization test. Fig. 2 shows the processes of the
image analysis. Meanwhile, CFD simulation was also conducted to predict the complex
flow created by the ventilation fan. Geometry of the ventilation fan was modelled and
included in the computational domain as shown in Fig. 3 (a) and (b). The vector field
produced through the image analysis and the CFD-calculated flow pattern were combined
and adjusted to build a virtual fan flow profile. The virtual fan profile was used as an
input profile of a virtual fan, simplified as a square, in a simulation model. Fig. 3 (c)
shows the visualized flow pattern induced by CFD simulation using the virtual fan flow
profile, and this can save cost and trouble of modelling the real ventilation fan in the
simulation.
The BEMT was coded to calculate optimum blade design under non-uniform
distribution of the ventilation fan flow unlike the uniform natural wind condition (Fig. 4).
According to the optimisation process of 128 NACA airfoils, the best performance was
obtained when NACA63(2)-615 airfoil was used. Fig. 5 shows the designed turbine blade
(C, Br) and modified design (C’, Br’). Because the first-designed shape factors were in a
series of zigzags, they were modified smoothly considering the convenience of
manufacturing.
CFD simulations of the wind turbine blades were also conducted to analyse wind-
induced forces, such as life and drag, on the blade body and surfaces. Combination of lift
and drag forces created the torque which rotated the wind turbine, and the distribution of
the torque along the blade length was calculated from CFD-calculated results as well as
from the BEMT as shown in Fig. 6. The CFD results showed a good agreement with the
BEMT results, but differences might reflect the effect of turbulence which was not
considered during the BEMT calculations. The validated simulation is being utilised to
adjust the blade design to enhance the blade performance and to reduce noise generated at
the blade tip as shown in Fig. 7.
The wind turbine was made by CNC machine and the hub which links three
blades was made of aluminium alloy. The final wind power system consists of wind
turbine, permanent magnet synchronous generator, power converter system, power output
system, tower and accessories as shown in Fig. 8. The final output from the wind power
system was almost 300 W. The power generated by the wind turbine and generator was
higher than 300 W but electrical energy loss of slightly higher than 10 % was observed
when converting the generated energy into usable electricity. Therefore the efficiency of
the converter system was also a significant factor and need to be improved in further
studies.
The performance degradation due to the operation of the wind power system was
also evaluated by measuring the ventilation rate. There were few changes in the rotation
speed and electricity consumption of the ventilation fan due to the wind power system.
The ventilation rate decreased 1.5 % when the wind power system is operated; however it
can be negligible compared to the output of the wind power system.

CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the prototype of the small-scale wind power system utilising the
ventilation fan flow of livestock buildings was developed. The system was tested in field
experiments and it continuously produced almost 300 W of electricity. Considering the
ventilation fan consumed 1 kW, the wind power system could recover almost 30% of the
consumed energy by the ventilation fan with negligible ventilation losses. This technique
can be further improved, but the study shows reutilization of the ventilation flow can be
an effective plan to reduce the energy burden for farm holders.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the
Korean Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology of Food, Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (IPET) in Korea.

Literature Cited
Burton, T., D. Sharpe, N. Jenkins and E. Bossanyi. 2001. Wind Energy Handbook.
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Chapter 3.
Choi, H. S. and H. N. Chang. 2009. Estimation of wind power generation of micro wind
turbine on the roof of high rise buildings in urban area. Journal of the Korean Society
for New and Renewable Energy 5(4): 21-27.
Korean Energy Management Corporation (KEMC). 2008. Wind power, 5-6. Seoul:
Bookshill.
Korea Kr (KK). 2008. Green growth, new paradigm for national development.
http://korea.kr/newsWeb/pages/brief/categoryNews2/view.do?_windowLabel=portlet_
categorynews_2&newsDataId=148656397&_nfls=false&_pageLabel=news_page_02
&portl=&_nfpb=true. 24 Aug. 2008. Accessed 31 Sep. 2010.
Park, J. C. and N. H. Kyung. 2003. A study on the application of small wind power
system in apartment housing. Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society 23(2): 21-
34.
Rural Development Administration (RDA). 2008. Environmentally friendly clean energy
for green growth. http://www.rda.go.kr. Accessed 31 Sep. 2010.

Figures

Fig. 1. Measurements of velocity distributions behind the exhaust fan (left) and on the
leeward of the exhaust fan (right).
 Fig. 2. Image processes of tuft flow visualization and its results.

Fig. 3. CFD simulations of ventilation fan flow by including ventilation fan modeling (a,
b) and by using virtual fan profile (c).
Fig. 4. Wind speed distribution of the ventilation fan flow for the use of wind power
generation.
 Fig. 5. Shape factors designed by BEMT (C, Br) and it modification (C’, Br’).

Fig. 6. CFD simulation of wind turbine performance with virtual fan flow modeling (left)
and comparison of torque distribution along blade length between BEMT calculation and
CFD simulation (right).
 Fig. 7. CFD simulation of noise distributions on the blade surface according to various
blade tip shapes.

Fig. 8. Component diagram of small-scale wind power system.

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