ME493_Elective1

ATR
 WIND ENERGY
• Energy from moving air.
• It is also one of the first sources of energy to be utilized by humanity.
The earliest use of wind energy was in mechanical devices (e.g. for
pumping water or grinding grain) and for transportation (e.g. sailing
ships).
• Wind is caused by uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun.
Because the earth's surface is made up of different types of land and
water, it absorbs the sun's heat at different rates.
• The air moves because of pressure gradients caused by thermal
gradients that result from the heating and cooling of the atmosphere.
 Wind Energy
• The daily wind cycle
• During the day, air above the land heats
up faster than air over water. Warm air
over land expands and rises, and
heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its
place, creating wind. At night, the winds
are reversed because air cools more
rapidly over land than it does over
water.
• In the same way, the atmospheric winds
that circle the earth are created
because the land near the earth's
equator is hotter than the land near the
North Pole and the South Pole.
Wind Energy

The Royal Clipper, the largest operational sailing ship as of 2014.

Wind energy has been harvested for literally thousands of years. One of the earliest uses of
wind energy was for transportation . A large sailing ship of this type could produce close to
8MW of power in strong wind.
Wind Energy
The use of wind energy for
other purpose certainty
dates back hundreds, if not,
thousands of years. The use
of the traditional so-called
Dutch-windmill, as shown in
figure, for grinding of grain
was widespread in Europe
more than five centuries
ago.
Windmills vs. Wind Turbines
• The terms “wind mill” and “wind turbine” are sometimes
used interchangeably, but there are important differences.
Windmills generate mechanical energy, but they do not
generate electricity. People started using windmills
centuries ago to grind grain, pump water, and do other
work.
• Today's wind turbine is a highly evolved machine with
more than 8,000 parts. Modern wind turbines harness
wind's kinetic energy and convert it into electricity.
Wind Turbines
• Wind energy in the United
States has a rich history marked
with policy leadership and
technological innovations –
many of which were supported
by the American Wind Energy
Association (AWEA) and its
members.
• This photo shows residents and
workers at Crotched Mountain
Rehab Center walking under
the very first wind farm in the
U.S., in 1980 or 1981.
What is wind power?
• Wind power is the ability to make electricity using the air flows that occur
naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. Wind turbine blades capture kinetic
energy from the wind and turn it into mechanical energy, spinning a generator
that creates electricity.
• Wind is a type of renewable energy, and there are three major types of wind
power:
• Utility-scale wind: wind turbines larger than 100 kilowatts with electricity
delivered to the power grid and distributed to the end user by electric
utilities or power system operators;
• Distributed or "small" wind: use turbines of 100 kilowatts or smaller to
directly power a home, farm or small business as it primary use;
• Offshore wind: wind turbines erected in large bodies of water, usually on
the continental shelf.
 Wind Power Plants / Wind Farm
• Wind power plants, or wind farms, produce electricity.
• Wind power plant, or wind farm, are clusters of wind turbines that produce large amounts of
electricity which functions as a single power plant that puts electricity onto the grid. A wind
farm usually has many turbines scattered over a large area.
 Where Wind Power Is Harnessed
• Wind power plants require careful planning.
• Operating a wind power plant is more complex
than simply erecting wind turbines in a windy
area. Wind power plant owners must carefully
plan where to position wind turbines and must
consider how fast and how often the wind blows
at the site.
• Wind speed typically increases with altitude and
increases over open areas without windbreaks.
Good sites for wind turbines include the tops of
smooth, rounded hills; open plains and water;
and mountain gaps that funnel and intensify
wind.
• Wind speeds are not the same across the
country. Wind speeds also vary throughout the
day and from season to season.
 Aerodynamics
• a branch of dynamics that deals with the motion of air and other gaseous fluids and with the
forces acting on bodies in motion relative to such fluids

• Aerodynamic force - is exerted on a body by the air (or some other gas) in which the body is
immersed, and is due to the relative motion between the body and the gas. Aerodynamic force
arises from two causes:
1. the normal force due to the pressure on the surface of the body
2. the shear force due to the viscosity of the gas, also known as skin friction.

Airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the shape of a wing, blade (of
a propeller, rotor, or turbine), or sail (as seen in cross-section). An airfoil-shaped body moved
through a fluid produces an aerodynamic force
 Aerodynamics

Examples of airfoils in nature and within Airfoil cross-section shapes for different designs extracted from
various vehicles. design space.
 Aerodynamics
• When an airfoil (or a wing) is moving relative to the air it generates an aerodynamic force, in a rearward
direction at an angle with the direction of relative motion. This aerodynamic force is commonly resolved
into two components:

 drag is the force component parallel

to the direction of relative motion,

 lift is the force component

perpendicular to the direction of
relative motion.

Thrust – is the force created by a propeller or a jet engine and it is also an aerodynamic force (since it
also acts on the surrounding air). The aerodynamic force on a powered airplane is commonly
represented by three vectors: thrust, lift and drag.

Weight - the other force acting on an aircraft during flight Weight is a body force and is not an
aerodynamic force.
 Types of Wind Turbines
• There are two basic types of wind turbines:
Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT)
Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT)

• The size of wind turbines varies widely. The length of the blades is the
biggest factor in determining the amount of electricity a wind turbine
can generate. Small wind turbines that can power a single home may
have an electricity generating capacity of 10 kilowatts. The largest
turbines have generating capacities of 5,000 to 8,000 kilowatts. Large
turbines are often grouped together to create wind power plants, or
wind farms, that provide power to electricity grids.
 Vertical-axis wind turbines
• Vertical-axis wind turbines look like egg
beaters
• Vertical-axis turbines have blades that
are attached to the top and the bottom
of a vertical rotor. The most common
type of vertical-axis turbine—the
Darrieus wind turbine, named after the
French engineer Georges Darrieus who
patented the design in 1931—looks like a
giant, two-bladed egg beater. Some
versions of the vertical-axis turbine are
100 feet tall and 50 feet wide. Very few
vertical-axis wind turbines are in use
today because they do not perform as
well as horizontal-axis turbines. Darrieus Rotor on Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec
Darrieus Wind Turbine / Darrieus Rotor

The Darrieus wind turbine is a type

of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)
used to generate electricity from
the energy carried in the wind.
 The turbine consists of a number of
curved aerofoil blades mounted on a
vertical rotating shaft or framework.
The curvature of the blades allows the
blade to be stressed only in tension at
high rotating speeds.
There are major difficulties in
protecting the Darrieus turbine from
extreme wind conditions and in
making it self-starting.
Darrieus Rotor on Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec
Darrieus Wind Turbine / Darrieus Rotor
ADVANTAGE:
1. The generator mechanism is at the
bottom, making it easier to service
2. They do not have to be oriented to
face the wind.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. They are not self-starting, they need
to be manually restarted when the
wind returns.
2. Have lower efficiency compare to
other designs and are subject to
excessive stresses that can result in
mechanical failure.
3. They are not commercially attractive
as compare to other designs.
Savonius Wind Turbine
A Savonius is a type of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)
generator invented in 1922 by Sigurd Johannes
Savonius from Finland though similar wind turbine
designs had been attempted in previous centuries.
The Savonius is a drag-type VAWT which operates in the
same way as a cup anemometer.
 With a Savonius wind turbine it does not matter from
which direction the wind is blowing, since there will
always be more force exerted on whichever cup has
its open face into the wind, and this will push the
rotor around. This makes this design of wind turbine
ideal for areas with very turbulent wind.
 Unfortunately, Savonius wind turbines typically only
have an efficiency of around 15% – i.e. just 15% of
the wind energy hitting the rotor is turned into
rotational mechanical energy. (This is much less than
can be achieved with a Darrieus wind turbine which
uses lift rather than drag.)
 Savonius turbines are used whenever cost
or reliability is much more important than efficiency.
Savonius vertical axis wind turbine working principle
 Horizontal-axis wind turbines
• Horizontal-axis wind turbines are similar to
propeller airplane engines
• These are identified by the fact that the axis of
rotation of the blades are in a fixed horizontal
position therefore the unit must be placed in the
direction of the wind, these are most popular in
rural areas.
• Horizontal-axis turbines have blades like airplane
propellers, and they commonly have three
blades. The largest horizontal-axis turbines are as
tall as 20-story buildings and have blades more
than 100 feet long. Taller turbines with longer
blades generate more electricity. Nearly all of the
wind turbines currently in use are horizontal-axis
turbines.
 How wind turbine works?
• Wind turbines use blades to collect the wind’s kinetic energy. Wind flows over the blades creating lift
(similar to the effect on airplane wings), which causes the blades to turn. The blades are connected to a
drive shaft that turns an electric generator that produces the electricity.
 How wind turbine works?
• A wind turbine works on a simple principle. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a
generator to create electricity. Wind turbines are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At
100 feet (30 meters) or more above ground, they can take advantage of faster and less turbulent wind.
Wind turbines can be used to produce electricity for a single home or building, or they can be
connected to an electricity grid for more widespread electricity distribution.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Tower: Made from tubular steel, concrete, or steel lattice. Supports the structure of the turbine.
Because wind speed increases with height, taller towers enable turbines to capture more energy and
generate more electricity.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Wind direction: Determines the design of the turbine. Upwind turbines—like the one shown below —
face into the wind while downwind turbines face away.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Rotor: Blades and hub together form the rotor.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Blades: Lifts and rotates when wind is blown over them, causing the rotor to spin. Most turbines have
either two or three blades.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Pitch: Turns (or pitches) blades out of the wind to control the rotor speed, and to keep the rotor from
turning in winds that are too high or too low to produce electricity.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Brake: Stops the rotor mechanically, electrically, or hydraulically, in emergencies.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Low-speed shaft: Turns the low-speed shaft at about 30-60 rpm.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Gear box: Connects the low-speed shaft to the high-speed shaft and increases the rotational speeds
from about 30-60 rotations per minute (rpm), to about 1,000-1,800 rpm; this is the rotational speed
required by most generators to produce electricity. The gear box is a costly (and heavy) part of the
wind turbine and engineers are exploring "direct-drive" generators that operate at lower rotational
speeds and don't need gear boxes.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Generator: Produces 60-cycle AC electricity; it is usually an off-the-shelf induction generator.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• High-speed shaft: Drives the generator.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Controller: Starts up the machine at wind speeds of about 8 to 16 miles per hour (mph) and shuts off
the machine at about 55 mph. Turbines do not operate at wind speeds above about 55 mph because
they may be damaged by the high winds.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Nacelle: Sits atop the tower and contains the gear box, low- and high-speed shafts, generator,
controller, and brake. Some nacelles are large enough for a helicopter to land on.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Anemometer: Measures the wind speed and transmits wind speed data to the controller.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Wind vane: Measures wind direction and communicates with the yaw drive to orient the turbine
properly with respect to the wind.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Yaw drive: Orients upwind turbines to keep them facing the wind when the direction changes.
Downwind turbines don't require a yaw drive because the wind manually blows the rotor away from it.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
• Yaw motor: Powers the yaw drive.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
1. Anemometer - Measures the wind speed and transmits wind speed data to the controller.
2. Blades - Lifts and rotates when wind is blown over them, causing the rotor to spin. Most turbines
have either two or three blades.
3. Brake - Stops the rotor mechanically, electrically, or hydraulically, in emergencies.
4. Controller - Starts up the machine at wind speeds of about 8 to 16 miles per hour (mph) and shuts
off the machine at about 55 mph. Turbines do not operate at wind speeds above about 55 mph
because they may be damaged by the high winds.
5. Gear box - Connects the low-speed shaft to the high-speed shaft and increases the rotational speeds
from about 30-60 rotations per minute (rpm), to about 1,000-1,800 rpm; this is the rotational speed
required by most generators to produce electricity. The gear box is a costly (and heavy) part of the
wind turbine and engineers are exploring "direct-drive" generators that operate at lower rotational
speeds and don't need gear boxes.
6. Generator - Produces 60-cycle AC electricity; it is usually an off-the-shelf induction generator.
7. High-speed shaft - Drives the generator.
8. Low-speed shaft - Turns the low-speed shaft at about 30-60 rpm.
 The Inside of a Wind Turbine
9. Nacelle - Sits atop the tower and contains the gear box, low- and high-speed shafts, generator,
controller, and brake. Some nacelles are large enough for a helicopter to land on.
10. Pitch - Turns (or pitches) blades out of the wind to control the rotor speed, and to keep the rotor
from turning in winds that are too high or too low to produce electricity.
11. Rotor - Blades and hub together form the rotor.
12. Tower - Made from tubular steel (shown here), concrete, or steel lattice. Supports the structure of
the turbine. Because wind speed increases with height, taller towers enable turbines to capture
more energy and generate more electricity.
13. Wind direction - Determines the design of the turbine. Upwind turbines—like the one shown here—
face into the wind while downwind turbines face away.
14. Wind vane - Measures wind direction and communicates with the yaw drive to orient the turbine
properly with respect to the wind.
15. Yaw drive - Orients upwind turbines to keep them facing the wind when the direction changes.
Downwind turbines don't require a yaw drive because the wind manually blows the rotor away from
it.
16. Yaw motor - Powers the yaw drive.
 Upwind and Downwind Horizontal Turbine
• Upwind Turbines
• The rotor on an upwind turbine is in the front of
the unit, positioned similar to a propeller driven
airplane. To keep it oriented into the wind, a yaw
mechanism such as a tail is needed.
• Advantage The reduced tower shading. The air will
start to bend around the tower before it passes it
so there is some loss of power from the
interference, just not the degree as in the
downwind turbine.
• Disadvantage The extended nacelle that is required
to position the rotor far enough away from the
tower to avoid any problems with a blade strike.
The blades themselves must be somewhat stiff to
avoid bending back into the tower. This will mean
the point where the blade attaches to the rotor hub
will be stressed during high, gusty wind conditions.
 Upwind and Downwind Horizontal
Turbine
• Downwind Turbines
• The downwind turbine has its rotor on the back side of the turbine. The
nacelle typically is designed to seek the wind, thus negating the need for a
separate yaw mechanism.
• Advantage
• The rotor blades can be flexible since there is no danger of a tower strike.
The flexing blade has two advantages:
1. They can be less expensive to make
2. They can relieve stress on the tower during high or gusty wind conditions
since the flexing allows some wind load to be transferred directly to the
blades instead of the tower. The Proven has a hinged design that allows the
blade to flex back to dissipate energy for speed control.
• Disadvantage
• The flexible blade advantage can also be a disadvantage as the flexing may
fatigue the blades. Tower shadow is problem with a downwind machine
since the rotor blade actually passed behind the tower. This can cause
turbulence and increased fatigue on the unit.
 Difference between horizontal and vertical
HAWT VAWT
axis wind turbine
Horizontal axis wind turbine have
Vertical axis wind turbine have axis of
Axis of rotation axis of rotation parallel to the
rotation perpendicular to ground
ground

Number of blades working at a time All three blades work at a time. One blade work at a time.

Horizontal axis wind turbine only

works in a specific wind direction,
Working wind direction Vertical axis wind turbine work in all
when wind direction change
wind directions
horizontal axis wind turbine have to
move itself in the direction

Higher, because all blades of

Efficiency at a given wind speed horizontal axis wind turbine work at Lower
a time
High Low
Starting Wind Speed
2.5 - 5 m/s 1.5 - 3 m/s
Noise 5-60 dB 0-10 dB
 Difference between horizontal and vertical
HAWT VAWT
axis wind turbine
Weak
Violent Wind Resistance (Need installation of breaks and Strong
guyed mast)

Maintenance Complicated Convenient

Open Area
Open or Urban Area,
Larger area for axis of rotation are
Area needed for installation Area and Height to be determine as
needed for the horizontal axis wind
per design
turbine. Height is also a concern.

Big wind applications, able to

Small wind projects and residential
Applications produce more electricity from a
wind applications
given amount of wind
Horizontal axis wind turbine cannot
be installed near population Vertical axis wind turbine is designed
Location of installation
because of the area needed and for installation in urban areas
protection precision
HAWT vs VAWT
• Advantages
• Horizontal Axis Wind Generator
- An easier design to construct and install
- Efficient in capturing and converting wind energy (generates electricity from smaller amounts of wind)
• Vertical Axis Wind Generator
- Doesn't need to be repositioned to capture wind energy
- Easy to maintain and repair as the mechanical components are mounted on or close to ground level
• Disadvantages
• Horizontal Axis Wind Generator
- Needs to be adjusted realign towards the wind direction
- Difficult to maintain and repair as the mechanical components are mounted at height
• Vertical Axis Wind Generator
- A more difficult design to construct and install
- Inefficient in capturing and converting wind energy (requires large amounts of wind power to generate
electricity
•
Wind Turbine Lubrication and
Maintenance
• Repairing wind turbines can often be difficult for several
reasons. Most wind farms are located in remote areas, making it
difficult to reach the site. Once at the site, workers are faced
with making repairs while anywhere from 75 feet to nearly 400
feet in the air. Also unlike natural gas-fired or coal-fired plants,
operators can expect to repeat this process multiple times
because of the comparatively small capacity of wind turbines.
A worker performs maintenance on wind turbine, which
can extend the turbine's life and protect the owner's
investment in the equipment.
Workers prepare to work on a wind turbine, which is often
difficult because of the remote location and need for
specialty equipment.
• A maintenance crew has assembled a 360° platform and awaits a rigger in the nacelle to drop hoist
lines. The black hoist arms on the platform guide the lift ropes away from the structure.
 Wind Energy and the Environment
• Wind is an emissions-free source of energy
• Wind is a renewable energy source. Overall, using wind to produce energy
has fewer environmental impacts than many other energy sources. Wind
turbines do not release emissions that can pollute the air or water (with
rare exceptions), and they do not require water for cooling. Wind turbines
may also reduce the amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels,
which reduces total air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.
• An individual wind turbine has a relatively small physical footprint. Groups
of wind turbines, sometimes called wind farms, are located on open land,
on mountain ranges, or offshore in lakes or the ocean.
 Wind Energy and the Environment
• Wind turbines have some negative impacts on the environment
• Modern wind turbines are large machines, and they have a visual impact on the
landscape. A small number of wind turbines have also caught fire, and some have
leaked lubricating fluids, but these occurrences are rare. Some people do not like the
sound that wind turbine blades make as they turn in the wind. Some types of wind
turbines and wind projects cause bird and bat deaths. These deaths may contribute to
declines in the population of species also affected by other human-related impacts.
• Most wind power projects on land also require service roads that add to the physical
impact on the environment. Wind turbines also require the use of rare earth minerals.
These minerals are often located in countries with less stringent environmental
standards than the United States, and mining these minerals can have negative
impacts on the environment. Producing the metals and other materials used to make
wind turbines and the concrete used for their foundations requires energy that may
have been produced by fossil fuels.