Energy 148 (2018) 169e178

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

The effects of blade pitch angle on the performance of small-scale

wind turbine in urban environments
P.A. Costa Rocha a, *, J.W. Carneiro de Araujo a, R.J. Pontes Lima a, M.E. Vieira da Silva a,
D. Albiero a, C.F. de Andrade a, F.O.M. Carneiro b
a
Solar Energy and Natural Gas Laboratory, Campus do Pici, Bl. 718, 60455-760, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil
b
University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony, Palmares Academic Unit, Rodovia CE 060, Km 51, Acarape, CE, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Due to the growing importance of wind power as a clean and renewable energy source, the use of small-
Available online 19 January 2018 scale wind turbines in urban environments has increased lately. The blade pitch control is an effective
method to improve the aerodynamic response of a wind turbine, usually applied to large-scale wind
Keywords: turbines. This study presents the effects of varied blade pitch on the aerodynamic performance of a
Small-scale wind turbine small-size wind turbine. The blades were sketched out according to the Blade Element Moment (BEM)
Pitch angle control
theory, applying the aerodynamic profile NREL-S809 and designed for a tip speed ratio of eight. To
Urban environment
analyze the influence of the blade pitch angle on the energy conversion, a comparative study was carried
Blade element momentum theory
ANOVA
out varying the pitch angle to five different values. Using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was
possible to demonstrate that blade pitch control could be an effective method also for small-sized wind
turbines. A performance chart from the results of blade pitch experiments shows that the power coef-
ficient varies significantly when the angle changes. As conclusion, it is highlighted that an enhanced
behavior could be attained by the use of a pitch angle controller resulting in a better recovery of the
energy available in the wind.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction contained in flowing air into electricity [4].

During the last decade, the interest in renewable energy sources
(RES) has been increasing all over the world due to concerns about
the limited fossil fuel supply, and their harmful impact on the
environment [1]. The support of RES is considered, besides the gain
in power efficiency, a key measure to achieve the climate goals [2],
such as the reduction of CO2 emissions. Consequently, the share of
RES in primary energy supply has been intensified as a means to
minimize the impact of conventional energy generation on the
environment.
The electric power is an essential factor for the development
and the evolution of human society whether in the field of the
living conditions improvement or in the industrial activities [3]. For
this reason, its production and distribution must be accessible to all
the people in many regions. One way to generating electricity from
renewable sources is to use wind turbines that convert the energy
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: paulo.rocha@ufc.br (P.A.C. Rocha).
Another way of producing electricity from renewable sources is
through the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology, in which the
incident solar radiation is directly converted into electrical energy,
according to the principle of photoelectric effect. Despite the great
performance and cost efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels tech-
nology in the electricity production, the use of wind turbines has
been grown in the last years. For instance, throughout 2015 the
installed wind power across Europe outgrows 13,800 MW, that
means 5,4% more than in the previous year [5]. German was the
largest market in terms of annual installations, setting up
6013.4 MW of new capacity.
As a result of this growth, the wind turbines technologies are
being increasingly developed. New control methods have been
proposed to reduce structural damage caused by high wind speeds
and to enhance the wind turbine efficiency, intensifying their use,
for example, in high turbulence environments. Also, urban energy
generation has been grown. According to Bahaj et al., in contrast to
the traditional centralized energy supply, micro-generation tech-
nologies bring power generation close to the user to sustain their
homes or buildings [6]. Economic studies have also demonstrated

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.01.096
0360-5442/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
170 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178
the viability of the domestic uses of wind power, mainly in urban
areas [2,7,8]. Following this trend, several works are devoted to
small wind turbines acting in urban environments [6,9e14].
According to Lubitz [10], ambient turbulence and wind direction
variance both have significant impacts on small wind turbines.
Several attributes of specific urban surroundings, such as the height
of buildings and shape (the geometric feature), contribute to
generating typical ambient turbulence, which distinguishes it from
open areas of wind farms. The wind field in the urban areas is
mainly impacted by the dynamics of airflow in the surroundings of
buildings. Lubitz [10] highlights that the effect of turbulence on
power output is more difficult to generalize because turbulent
gusts affect different features such as wind alignment, airfoil per-
formance and power limiting. Zanforlin and Letizia [9] demon-
strated that in the realistic urban context the wind approaches the
roof with a strong vertical component (skewed wind). Grieser et al.
[2] exemplify the resulting turbulence as a vortex that mainly ap-
pears at the roof edges, in which the air streams impinge on the
building wall and cause a so-called “separation bubble” above the
roof edge.
The power output of a wind turbine varies with wind speed, and
every wind power converter has a characteristic power perfor-
mance curve [15]. The cut-in speed is the minimum wind speed
necessary above which the machine will deliver useful power. In
the same sense, the cut-off speed, usually limited by the engi-
neering design and safety constraints, is the maximum wind speed
at which the turbine is allowed to deliver power. When the wind
velocity reaches and overpasses the cut-off speed, the output po-
wer must be limited reducing the aerodynamic efficiency [15].
There are different ways to achieve the over-speed control. Some
intermediate-sized turbines used fixed-blade pitch and stall con-
trol. Most manufacturers use pitch control, and the general trend is
the increased use of pitch control, especially in larger machines
[1,15,16].
The blade pitch control is a useful method to reduce overload
when wind speeds exceed the limit designed for the turbine. Pitch
control is then used to regulate the rotor speed, with the load
torque held constant [16]. Morten et al. investigated the use of
pitching to obtain the maximum power output of a wind turbine
[17]. The authors proposed the use of an optimized pitching profile
that results in reduction of force and root mean square (RMS) tor-
que variation by over 96% percent compared to any constant pitch
profile. Other studies investigate varied ways to use the pitch
control systems as a means to maximize the aerodynamic perfor-
mance [18] and improve the turbine power [19] of large turbines.
Pitch control systems are widely used to large wind turbines,
but not so often to small wind turbines [20], consequently few
works approaches this subject in the literature. However, the per-
formance of a small wind turbine can also be enhanced by the use
of pitch angle control system, as shown in the study conducted to
evaluate pitch controlled small turbines under tempestuous gust
winds or strong winds caused by typhoons blow [20]. The authors
demonstrated that the pitch angle control was effective in these
turbines to change their rotational speed as a function of wind
velocities to avoid damages from strong winds.
Similarly the study conducted by Nagai et al. [20], the present
study aims to investigate the influence of pitch angle variation on
small turbines under high turbulence, but herein it is evaluated in
typical urban environments. For this, a study on the power coeffi-
cient of a three-bladed wind turbine was carried out. The wind
turbine performance was analyzed for five different pitch angle
adjustments applying statistical methods. In addition, this work
introduces a direct experimental correlation between the changes
in pitch angle and the output power coefficient, which suggests
that a blade pitch control would be applicable for a small wind
turbine in urban environments.
2. Experimental methods
2.1. Blade shape and materials
The blade assembly constitutes one of the main components of a
wind turbine. The wind turbine efficiency depends on the capa-
bility of these devices to extract kinetic energy from the wind,
converting it to a rotary motion. For that, the blades should be
specially designed to transform the force of the wind into the tor-
que needed to generate useful power. Thus, the blade design is
focusing onto maximize the rotor power output and to minimize
the losses, ensuring higher performance.
There are many things to consider in designing blades, but most
of them fall into one of two categories: aerodynamics and structure
[15]. Considering these two principal groups, some design param-
eters must be defined before starting the project, for instance, the
operating mode, aerodynamics airfoil design, tip speed ratio,
number of blades, and manufacturing materials.
In this work, a variable speed-operating mode was applied to a
three-bladed rotor. The three-bladed rotor was chosen considering
the remarkable applicability and proven efficiency of this rotor
type. Three blades have the particular advantage that the polar
moment of inertia with respect to yawing is constant, and is in-
dependent of the azimuthal position of the rotor [6]. According to
Hau [21], the three-bladed rotor type is the one that presents the
best relation between the power coefficient (Cp) and the tip speed
ratio (l). This rotor type achieves power coefficients about to 0.5 at
the tip speed ratio between 7 and 8 [21], that is close to the Betz
limit (0.593) [22].
The blades made of balsa wood conform to the aerodynamic
airfoil NREL-S809 created by the National Renewable Energy Lab-
oratory [23]. The NREL-S809 airfoil, shown in Fig. 1, was specifically
developed for horizontal-axis wind turbines to allow higher lift and
lower drag. Balsa wood has been chosen because it is very soft and
light material, which provides lighter blades and facilitates the
construction of profiles. Twenty airfoils were used to build each
blade. Fig. 2 depicts taper ratio curve, as well as twist curve is
depicted in Fig. 3.
The dimensions of designed blade preview the maximum power
coefficient at a tip speed ratio equal to eight, for which the blade
length setup of 1.5 m resulting to 3.0 m diameter rotors. The hub
diameter is 0.30 m that is 10% of the diameter rotor.
2.2. Measurements
A prototype of a small wind turbine was specially fabricated to
carry out the performance experiments. The assembling consists of
a three-bladed rotor that is coupled with a rotating shaft in which a
torque transducer was connected. In order to provide any safety
interruption of experiments, the shaft was also equipped with a
mechanical brake. The prototype is composed of an upwind, hori-
zontal axis wind turbine, which was mounted on a 5 m tall, four
inches in diameter, carbon steel tubular tower. A 5 m tall additional
carbon-steel tower, two inches in diameter, was installed a few
meters upwind to the wind turbine tower to serve as support to
install the anemometer, as shown in Fig. 4, which is the same as
[24].
The wind speed and direction simultaneously were recorded by
using a sonic anemometer WindMaster model 1590-PK-20. This
device can perform measurements in the wind speed up to
45 m s
1, resolution of 0.001 m s
1 and accuracy of <1.5% RMS. The
wind direction ranges from 0 to 359.9 , with resolution of 0.1. The
selected sampling rate is either 20 Hz or 32 Hz, depending on the
 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178 171

Fig. 1. Geometry of the NREL-S809 airfoil.

Fig. 2. Taper ratio curve.

Fig. 4. Prototype installations [24].

Fig. 5. Torque transducer and tachometer assembly.

Fig. 3. Twist curve.

Headquarters (Germany), measuring nominal torque up to 200 Nm,

configured output.
The delivered power from the wind turbine was measured by
tracking the torque and rotational velocity transmitted to the
rotating shaft. In order to obtain these experimental measure-
ments, a torque transducer and a digital tachometer were coupled
to the rotating shaft positioned near to the three-bladed rotor, as
shown in Fig. 5.
The Torque transducer is an HBM-T22 fabricated by HBM
nominal rotational speed up to 9000 rpm, accuracy class 0.5. The
Digital tachometer model TS-TADIG measures the axis rotation
using a micro-controlled unidirectional pulse counter operating in
the 4 MHz range. The model has an inductive proximity sensor
running in the range of 0e9999 rpm with 0.8% error.
The aerodynamic performance of the small wind turbine pro-
totype could be evaluated by comparing the power available in the
wind and the useful power delivered from the wind turbine. Using
172 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178
the three variables obtained from the wind convertor system, it was
possible to calculate these values and establish a correlation be-
tween the variation of the blade pitch angle and wind turbine
performance.
All devices provide analog outputs, which have been converted
into digital signals before the data transferring to a computer for
long-term storage and graphical analysis. A schematic view of the
experimental apparatus is shown in Fig. 6. Note that since the wind
simultaneously reaches both towers, data recorded from the
tachometer and torque transducer are synchronized to the
anemometer signal.
2.3. Instrument calibration
Since analog outputs need to be converted into digital signals, all
devices must be calibrated before starting the measuring test. In-
strument calibration checks the accuracy of instruments and pro-
vides the output conversion curve to a digital signal. The
proprietary manufacturer calibrated the anemometer beforehand
and the following conversion equation was indicated:
h i
U ¼ 8$V
20 m s
1
where U is wind speed, V is output voltage [V].
The torque transducer calibration evaluates the torque mea-
surement using a lever deadweight system, i.e., a torque generation
method using gravity. For this, the torque transducer coupled to the
shaft was assembled in a test bench. Triggering the mechanical
brake is prevented from any axis motion when applying dead-
weight on the lever. Fig. 7 shows the torque standard machine, in
which the lever nominal full-length is 1 m. The lever was coupled to
the shaft at the central position to result null torque at initial
calibration. Deadweight loading was positioned at 0.486 m of the
lever center then the resultant torque was measured.
Torque transducer accuracy is determined by comparing the
measured torque with calculated value using the gravitational force
and lever length (t ¼ mgl). Since the device delivers proportional
analogic signals (voltage), it is possible to plot a torque calibration
chart varying the applied deadweight. Fig. 8 depicts the calibration
curve showing the torque as a linear function of the output voltage.
Applying similar methodology, a tachometer calibration curve
(Fig. 9) was plotted using stroboscopic flashlight to check the axial
rotation of a shaft coupled to an electric motor. Reference point is
marked installing a little steel bar at the end of the shaft. The
tachometer was installed near to the shaft showing both rpm and
analogic signal output (mA). Starting from the highest pulse of the
flashlight, the flash rate is adjusted down until a single image of the
shaft is seen. The flashlight frequency at the first unique stop mo-
tion observed corresponds to the true shaft speed. Comparing the
Fig. 6. Schematic view of the experimental apparatus.
Fig. 7. Torque standard machine.
shaft speed measurement obtained by the two methods, the
tachometer accuracy is determined. Tachometer calibration curve is
plotted applying several rotational shaft speeds as a function of
analogic signal outputs from the tachometer. The maximum
tachometer accuracy was 0.8%, which is in accordance to the
manufacturer catalogue.
(1) 3. Experimental data
As previously mentioned, the main objective of this work is to
analyze the impact of the pitch angle variation on the aerodynamic
power output of a small wind turbine, under urban environmental
conditions. For this purpose, initially the nominal designed angle
set up the initial blade position at 25.63 , called “zero angle,” since
it was directly obtained by the BEM equations. During the experi-
mental procedure this angle was varied four times. Twice the pitch
angle was turned in the clockwise direction, and twice moved in
counterclockwise rotation from the zero angle by discrete in-
crements of 3 . As a result, the blades have been positioned in five
pitch angles, i.e., 31.63 , 28.63 , 25.63 , 22.63 and 19.63 . In order
to simplify the sampling nomenclature and easy understand, each
angle was named by the normalized angular displacement from the
initial blade position (called of 0 ). Thus, the five experimental
angles were called as
6 ,
3 , 0 , þ3 , þ6 , corresponding the
pitch angles of 31.63 , 28.63 , 25.63 , 22.63 and 19.63 . Experi-
mental data obtained for each one of these five positions were
recorded. Each dataset contains the instantaneous wind speed (U),
the rotational speed (U) and the torque (t) delivered from the wind
turbine. Complete experimental procedure has recorded 3516 data.
Table 1 shows the average values of these parameters.
The performance of a wind turbine can be characterized by the
variation of three main indicators e power, torque and thruste as a
function of wind speed [8]. The available power from wind is pro-
portional to the speed of wind cubed. It can be calculated for un-
disturbed airstream by the expression P ¼ ½rAU3, where (r) is the
air density, (A) is the cross-sectional area and (U) is wind speed. The
power output of a wind turbine (Pw) is a portion of this power that
is extracted by the converter machine. The ratio between the me-
chanical power extracted by the converter and that of the undis-
turbed air stream is called the “power coefficient” (CP). Therefore,
power coefficient may be calculated by the following equation:
Pw Pw
Cp ¼ ¼1 ½Dimensionless (2)
P r
2 AU
3
The power transmitted from the wind turbine (Pw) to the shaft
is:
Pw ¼ t$U ½W (3)
 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178 173

Fig. 8. Torque transducer calibration.

Fig. 9. Tachometer calibration.

Table 1 to the quotient between blades' tip velocity and the wind speed (Eq.
Experimental data for each pitch angle. (4)), it enables the evaluation of these parameters (Cp and l) from
Pitch angle U [m s
1] U [rad s
1] t [Nm] Turbulence intensity [%] each dataset, i.e. from U, t and U, then to plot the rotor power

6 4.03 2.20 4.00 22.54
characteristic curve for each tested pitch angle.

3 3.76 7.99 3.26 22.39
U$r
0 3.32 9.61 3.27 35.49
l¼ ½Dimensionless (4)
þ3 3.25 8.29 3.77 36.41 U
þ6 4.35 7.07 4.15 38.26
where (r) is blade rotor radius [m].

where ðtÞ is the torque [Nm] and ðUÞ the rotational speed [rad s
1].
In general, rotor power characteristics are represented by 3.1. Statistical analysis
dimensionless parameters, such as rotor power coefficient (Cp)
versus the tip speed ratio (l) curves [25]. Since tip speed ratio refers The rotor power characteristics, i.e., rotor power coefficient (Cp)
174 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178
and tip speed ratio (l), were calculated and statistically analyzed.
First, the data obtained for each pitch angle were grouped into tip-
speed intervals of unitary amplitude, from l ¼ 0 to l ¼ 9 performing
nine class intervals. It is worth noting that the endpoint convention
in this case includes the left endpoint of all class intervals and ex-
cludes the right, except for the rightmost class interval, which in-
cludes both of its endpoints.
Descriptive statistics summarize the dataset treatment, which is
ranked into each tip-speed intervals by the pitch angle. This data
subgrouping not only provides the comparison between the effects
of each pitch angle on the expected rotor power coefficient, but also
determines the wind turbine behavior as a function of tip speed
operating on a specific pitch angle. Table 2 summarizes all
descriptive statistics, including means, the valid assignments, and
measures of variability: variance, the maximum and minimum
values; in addition, some description about the shape of the dis-
tribution such as skewness and kurtosis is presented.
3.2. The analysis of variance e ANOVA
The analysis of variance consists in evaluating whether there is
statistically significant difference between mean values of several
treatments [26]. Assuming that the pitch angle is the main factor
that influences the rotor power coefficient, the ANOVA helps to
understand the magnitude of its impact, as well as determining
which angles are more beneficial to enhance the power coefficient.
It is considerate that Cp has a normal distribution resulting to a
single factor of interest, pitch angle displacement, which has five
levels (
6,
3, 0, þ3, þ6). Thus, the one-way analysis of variance
can be applied to test the hypothesis in which the mean of each
level has equality to each other.
The hypotheses are:
H0 ¼ m1 ¼ m2 ¼ m3 / ¼ mn (5)
Ha ¼ At least one pair mi smj (6)
In the case of null hypothesis H0 is rejected, the test assumes the
hypothesis alternative is true, which indicates that a difference
exists between the treatment means. It signifies that pitch angle
impacts on the power coefficient.
The ANOVA divides the total variability in the sample data into
two component parts: a sum of squares of differences between
treatment means and the grand mean, which is denoted as
SStreatments, and a sum of squares of differences of observation
within a treatment that is denoted SSE. Thereafter, ANOVA method
analyzes the ratio between the means of squares (MS) of two par-
titions; MSTreatment with (ae1) degrees of freedom (MSTreat-
ment ¼ SSTreatment/(ae1)) and MSE with n (a-1) degrees of freedom
(MSE ¼ SSE/n (a-1)). The null hypothesis H0 is true if the ratio be-
tween MSTreatment and MSE has an F-distribution with (ae1) and n
(a-1) degrees of freedom.
The designed experiment has a single factor with “a” levels
and“n” observations. Note in Table 2, that the experimental design
has varying levels (a) and sample sizes (n), and that they are
different in each treatment. In this case, it is called unbalanced
design for which slight modifications must be made in the sums of
squares' equation, considering that total sampling size (N) is:
X
a
N¼ ni (7)
i¼1
The ANOVA indicates whether there are significant differences
between treatments. However, it does not identify how many or
which average values are different from each other. In order to
isolate the specific differences it must be performed complemen-
tary tests, e.g. Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) method.
Other methods and comparative discussion can be found in
Ref. [27]. LSD compares the means of all treatment pairs with
rejected null hypothesis H0 ¼ mi ¼ mj (for all isj) using a t-statistic,
for which LSD is defined as:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u !ffi
u 1 1
LSD ¼ ta 2;N
a tMSE $
=
(8)
ni nj
Assuming that it is an unbalanced design, N is total sampling
size, a is the number of treatment levels, a/2 the confidence in-
tervals, MSE is mean squares of each treatment, n is sampling size of
each i and j pair. The pair of means, mi and mj, can be declared
significantly different if:
 
 
mi
mj  > LDS (9)
4. Results and discussions
Data acquisition was recorded throughout the experimental
period in which the wind turbine was kept on a typical urban
environment. Processing data filter was carried out as a means to
eliminate some noising data resulting in 3454 valid samples from
the 3516 initial data. The imposed criterion aims to adapt each data
treatment to a normal distribution that is evaluated by the skew-
ness and kurtosis. According to the literature [26,27] and other
statistical works [28e31], in general, skewness and kurtosis values
greater than 2 and fewer than
2, represent great deviation from
the normal distribution, then it must disregard the hypothesis of
normality of the data. The ANOVA was carried out to all the treat-
ment into the class intervals with sampling size of more than 3.
Table 3 presents the ANOVA results (for which a ¼ 0.05) including
the conclusion about the H0 test of hypotheses. Note that for almost
all class intervals of tip speed ratio, the p-value is considerably
small except to the class interval [6e7) in which the p-value is
greater than a (p-value ¼ 0.0527). This is a strong evidence to
conclude that the hypothesis of equality between means of treat-
ment is not true for the majority of treatments. Then the results
lead to conclude that pitch angle really influences the wind power
behavior in the conditions of the experiment.
As previously mentioned, since ANOVA does not identify which
intervals are different from each other, it is necessary to carry out a
comparative test of paired treatments. Following the adopted
methodology, the Fisher's LSD test was applied. Table 4 shows the
results of the test range into each class interval of tip speed ratio.
The Fisher's LSD criteria establish that a pair of treatment is
statistically different since the difference of means is greater than
the LSD value (Eq. (9)). Based on this statement, some pairs of
treatments could be interpreted as having the same average power
coefficient. At the initial interval of tip speed ratio only pairs
including the displacements of þ6 and
6 are different, but direct
comparison between these angles has no significant difference,
once the turbine is still starting up and the Cp values are low. Very
small l indicates that the rotational velocity is lesser than wind
speed (i.e. l is proportional to U/U). It suggests that initial motion of
the wind turbine is influenced by these pitch angles, perhaps they
only help to break down inertial forces. Analyzing the diagram of
forces acting on the blade (Fig. 10), the þ6 is aerodynamically
preferable than
6 because negative pitch angle displacements
may cause very low (or even negative) torque, since the effective
angle a increases resulting in stall over the most part of the blade.
 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178 175

Table 2
Descriptive statistics from the experimental dataset.

Tip speed ratio Intervals Angle displ. Average (l) Power coefficient (Cp)

Valid n Mean Variance Min. Max. Skewness Kurtosis

[0.00e1.00)
6 0.72 519 0.030 0.0002 0.003 0.082 1.07 1.84

3 0.77 17 0.041 0.0008 0.006 0.112 1.37 1.58
0 0.65 28 0.043 0.0009 0.006 0.123 1.22 0.73
þ3 0.50 34 0.037 0.0009 0.001 0.107 1.06 0.16
þ6 0.79 6 0.021 0.0001 0.001 0.034
0.92 0.48

[1.00e2.00)
6 1.06 69 0.037 0.0002 0.015 0.083 0.96 1.34

3 1.50 54 0.079 0.0011 0.027 0.181 0.90 0.86
0 1.57 114 0.117 0.0046 0.033 0.318 0.98 0.27
þ3 1.61 222 0.093 0.0013 0.028 0.243 1.08 1.40
þ6 1.70 182 0.072 0.0012 0.001 0.204 1.29 1.52

[2.00e3.00)
6 2.70 3 0.176 0.0105 0.102 0.293 1.54 *

3 2.75 204 0.071 0.0007 0.028 0.157 1.23 0.95
0 2.53 119 0.216 0.0090 0.046 0.535 0.56 0.20
þ3 2.58 60 0.232 0.0032 0.052 0.327
1.17 1.67
þ6 2.39 336 0.098 0.0024 0.033 0.293 1.38 1.85

[3.00e4.00)
6 3.60 2 0.127 0.0028 0.089 0.164 * *

3 3.43 428 0.141 0.0032 0.060 0.367 1.05 0.84
0 3.49 115 0.210 0.0269 0.032 0.572 0.69
0.66
þ3 3.31 23 0.319 0.0170 0.077 0.524
0.70
0.42
þ6 3.45 83 0.132 0.0046 0.051 0.363 1.30 1.63

[4.00e5.00)
6 4.36 2 0.237 0.0102 0.165 0.308 * *

3 4.35 128 0.294 0.0090 0.086 0.562 0.34 0.18
0 4.51 73 0.185 0.0294 0.053 0.586 1.29
0.05
þ3 4.56 47 0.372 0.0174 0.162 0.581
0.04
1.45
þ6 4.43 45 0.210 0.0083 0.087 0.503 1.21 1.55

[5.00e6.00)
6 5.49 1 0.339 * 0.339 0.339 * *

3 5.37 15 0.320 0.0111 0.201 0.534 1.12 0.34
0 5.49 56 0.246 0.0191 0.106 0.581 1.01
0.20
þ3 5.47 94 0.383 0.0170 0.026 0.587
0.15
1.01
þ6 0 * * * * * *

[6.00e7.00)
6 0 * * * * * *

3 6.19 4 0.345 0.0105 0.210 0.457
0.62 1.39
0 6.46 104 0.318 0.0100 0.166 0.579 0.85 0.30
þ3 6.55 51 0.362 0.0127 0.076 0.569
0.57
0.03
þ6 0 * * * * * *

[7.00e8.00)
6 0 * * * * * *

3 0 * * * * * *
0 7.5 80 0.451 0.0075 0.216 0.589
0.49
0.35
þ3 7.48 70 0.321 0.0043 0.156 0.484 0.24
0.14
þ6 0 * * * * * *

[8.00e9.00]
6 0 * * * * * *

3 0 * * * * * *
0 8.39 39 0.481 0.0023 0.343 0.598
0.67 1.64
þ3 8.41 27 0.359 0.0054 0.206 0.548 0.33 1.68
þ6 0 * * * * * *

*No data recorded.

Table 3
This phenomenon could be observed in the experiment since there
ANOVA results. is no Cp values recorded from
6 displacement above l ¼ 2.
Also,
3 seems to mitigate the power coefficient above l ¼ 2.
Tip speed ratio Intervals F p-value H0 ¼ m1 ¼ m2 ¼ m3 … ¼ mk
Analyzing the rotor power characteristic curves, which is
[0e1) 7.93 0.0000 False depicted in Fig. 11 for all angle displacements, it can be observed
[1e2) 46.70 0.0000 False
[2e3) 270.68 0.0000 False
that the best results came from 0 to þ3 angles. These angle
[3e4) 44.72 0.0000 False sometimes produces the average Cp value, for instance at tip speed
[4e5) 21.66 0.0000 False intervals of [0e1), [2e3) and [6e7). They provide a very profitable
[5e6) 19.28 0.0000 False ratio of the power extraction from the available wind power. It is
[6e7) 3.00 0.0527 True
interesting to note that after [2e3) interval this ratio decreases for
[7e8) 104.44 0.0000 False
[8,9] 66.01 0.0000 False the zero angle, but it is growing up for the þ3 angle. This behavior
is once more alternated when l reaches 6 to 7 until l ¼ 9.
176 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178

Some physical insights should be detailed in addition to the

Significant difference

statistic calculations, mainly for the 0 and þ3 angles. Despite

some results reveal difference between the performances at low
rotations (0 <l < 2), this finding does not seem significant because
it is based on average value of Cp, which is still very limited. Any
little deviation leads to large variations. Therefore, the use of þ3
FALSE

FALSE
FALSE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE

TRUE
TRUE

TRUE

TRUE
angle is indicated to provide highest torque. This fact could be
explained by the highly effective angle of attack (a), which can
more easily stall the blade at 0 . Regarding Fig. 10, a angle increases
0.0173

0.0714
0.0747
0.0153
0.0116
0.0097

0.0160
0.0126

0.0434

0.0300
LSD

when b diminishes, which can cause the detachment of the

boundary layer in a situation of low rotations. Accordingly, for the
starting regime, the displacement of þ3 which supplies more
Difference of means

advantageous torque inclusively, is predicted.

After overcome the braking inertial forces, the blades accelerate,
as the tip speed ratios ranged from 2 to 7, increasing the component
0.0155

0.0631
0.0741
0.1338
0.1183
0.0272

0.1610
0.1455

0.1372

0.1219
of the rotational speed vector (U.r). In spite of there are no statistic
observations, the value of Cp for þ3 angle visibly appears superior
for all the varied l values. The resultant speed vector diminishes
þ6 vs þ3

þ6 vs
3

þ3 vs
3

with the angle of the rotation plan, as well as the effective angle of
þ3 vs -3
þ3 vs 0

0 vs
3

þ3 vs 0

þ3 vs 0
þ6 vs0

0 vs -3

attack. In this condition the ratio L/D goes to the optimum value.
[2e3)

[5e6)

[8e9]
Pairs

The þ3 position reaches this condition before, beginning from

l ¼ 2 until nearly to the projected value (i.e. l ¼ 8). From this point,
the blades operating at 0 position achieve enhanced performance
Significant difference

because this is the arrangement designed by BEM for optimized

operations. The effective angle of attack equals the ratio L/D along
the blade length. On the other hand, the angle of attack for the
displacement of þ3 become small, reducing the lift forces in all
FALSE

FALSE
TRUE
TRUE

TRUE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE

TRUE

TRUE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE

TRUE

sections and mitigating the generating component of torque (see

the projected vector F on the rotation plane, Fig. 10).
It is important to highlight that in the present study, Cp does not
0.0127

0.0487
0.0082
0.0098

0.0116
0.0094
0.0124
0.0113
0.0135
0.0125
0.0149

0.0536

0.0486
0.0481
0.0479
0.0424

0.0249

decrease gradually. This finding clearly differs from other studies

LSD

for large or small-sized wind turbines conduced in controlled

conditions, e.g. wind tunnels. It can occur due to the urban envi-
Difference of means

ronment, which is characterized by the highly unsteady flow. As the

tip speed ratio becomes high, the wind turbine spins very rapidly
causing a blocking effect in which the wind diverts around the
turbine [16]. Thus, there is no wind interaction with the blades able
0.0073

0.0254
0.0217
0.0452

0.0350
0.0235
0.0144
0.0567
0.0379
0.0802
0.0423

0.1620

0.0623
0.1874
0.0997
0.0877

0.1297

to generate useful torque.

The power coefficient variation observed throughout the ex-
periments as a function of the changing in the pitch angle clearly
þ6 vs þ3

þ6 vs
6

þ3 vs
3
þ3 vs
6

3 vs
6

þ6 vs þ3

þ6 vs
3

þ3 vs
3
þ6 vs -3

þ6 vs 0
þ3 vs 0

0 vs
3
0 vs
6

þ3 vs 0

0 vs
3

þ3 vs 0

confirms its utility. It indicates the possibility of the application of

þ6 vs0
[1e2)

[4e5)

[7e8)

blade pitch control for a small wind turbine in the severe conditions
Pairs

such as urban environments. Fig. 12 depicts hypothetical curves

Significant difference

FALSE
FALSE
FALSE

FALSE

FALSE

FALSE
FALSE
TRUE
TRUE
TRUE

TRUE

TRUE
TRUE

TRUE
TRUE

TRUE
TRUE
TRUE

TRUE
0.0131
0.0082
0.0095

0.0098

0.0211

0.1061
0.1041
0.0141
0.0144
0.0152

0.0057

0.0062
0.0079

0.0415
0.0254

0.0402
0.0377
0.0185

0.0349
LSD
Difference of means

0.0091
0.0058
0.0037

0.0022

0.0088

0.0174
0.0261
0.0165
0.0224
0.0202

0.0074

0.0132
0.0111

0.1869
0.0775

0.1094
0.1781
0.0687

0.0435
Fisher's LSD test.

þ6 vs þ3

þ6 vs
3

þ3 vs
6

3 vs
6

þ6 vs þ3

þ3 vs
3
þ6 vs -6

þ3 vs -3

þ6 vs -3

þ3 vs -3
þ3 vs 0

0 vs
6

þ3 vs 0

0 vs
3

þ3 vs 0
þ6 vs0

0 vs -3

þ6 vs0

0 vs -3
[0e1)

[3e4)

[6e7)
Table 4

Pairs

Fig. 10. Diagram of acting forces on the blade rotor plane.

 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178 177

Fig. 11. Rotor power characteristic curves.

(traced red lines), which is suggested for the acting pitch angle
control, compared to polynomial regression curves from zero
and þ3 angles.
Following the pitch control curve (Fig. 12), it is possible to infer
the gain of energy capture. The choice to use the displacement
of þ3 to starting the wind turbine (l ¼ 0) until the tip speed ratio
reaches nearly the projected value (l ¼ 7) results in superior value
of Cp than the designed angle (0 ). Consequently, it results in a
larger energy capture. As the wind turbine accelerates there will be
an angle’ changes to modulate the energy capture, but this transi-
tion does not concern the subject of this work. This matter can be
investigated in a specific study. From l ¼ 7 the blades operate at
25.63 (projected angle) for which Cp is higher providing greater
energy capture throughout time-operation. Traced red lines is a
proposal operation curve and, depending of structural conditions of
the project, it is possible to allow increased turbine rotation
following the results obtained by angle profiles calculated from
BEM (i.e. 25.63 represented in this work by 0 ).
5. Conclusion
Statistical methods were applied to study the influence of blade
pitch angle on the performance of a three-bladed wind turbine in
urban environmental conditions. Experimental measurement ac-
quisitions from a wind turbine prototype, specially constructed for
this objective, provided a dataset that was statistically treated and

Fig. 12. Pitch control curve.

178 P.A.C. Rocha et al. / Energy 148 (2018) 169e178
compared. Test of hypotheses using the analysis of variance e
ANOVA was applied to confirm the dependence of rotor power
coefficient on the pitch angle.
Blade pitch angle set consists in the displacement of the first
section pitch angle (determined by BEM) by changing blade
orientation to up and down from this point. Thus, the experimental
dataset possesses five angular displacements of þ6, þ3, 0,
3
and
6 . It was observed that both the rotations of þ6 and
6
mitigate the rotor power coefficient. That means, from the point of
view of the wind turbine efficiency, an impracticable (non-desir-
able) application angle. However, considering the application of a
pitch control, a displacement to þ6 is appreciable to start the wind
turbine. On the other hand, a displacement of þ3 shows more
appropriate, which recorded higher Cp values for tip speed ratios
ranged from 3 to 7. As expected, the BEM designed angle (0 )
provides better efficiency for the tip speed from seven onwards. In
addition, statistical analysis indicates that the angles of 0 and þ 3
result in the best wind turbine efficiency for all tested tip speed
ratios, suggesting that other angles are unfeasible to be applied.
The most important conclusion of this study is addressed to the
use of a pitch angle control for a small wind turbine in urban
environment. Statistical tests from ANOVA confirm the physical
insight of the dependence of the rotor power coefficient on varied
pitch-angle values. The tests have shown that the pitch angle in-
terferes on the performance of the wind turbine, since it was
detected significant difference between the Cp averages. It suggests
that the controlling of this angle would be aerodynamically effi-
cient for the small wind turbine under urban conditions, and the
performance gains must be compared to financial costs, to guar-
antee positive economic results.
Acknowledgments
This research was jointly supported by the Fundaç~ ao Cearense
de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnolo gico (FUNCAP),
~o de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
the Coordenaça
(CAPES), and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico
e Tecnolo gico (CNPq), Brazilian governmental agencies. The sup-
port received is gratefully acknowledged.
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