2017 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2017), Jan.

05 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

Container Wind Energy for Wind Turbines

Prabakaran Balakrishnan Vivekanandan Chenniappan

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology SNS College of Engineering
Coimbatore, India Coimbatore, India
prabakaranb@siet.ac.in vp.snsce@gmail.com

Abstract—In hydro power plants, the water is stored in dams to in the container can be used to generate electric power using a
get more potential energy. This stored energy is used to hit the duct.
water turbines to drive the electrical generator. Similarly, the air The duct need not be used along with the wind turbine. The
can also be stored in a container to get more potential energy. duct can be used to channelize the air and can be used to store
This stored energy can be used further to hit the aero turbines to
drive the electrical generator. The ducts are used to increase the
in a container.
velocity of the wind by venturi effect. The venturi effect is the jet
effect; as with a funnel the velocity of the air decreases as the
cross-sectional area increases, with the static pressure
correspondingly increasing. The duct can be used to channelize
the air and can be used to store in a container. As the wind moves
through the duct, Wind pressure increases in the high cross-
sectional area. If a container is placed at the high wind pressure
end using a one- way valve, the air can be filled in it. The wind in
the filled container can be further used to produce electricity by
sending that wind through a regulator valve to a wind turbine.

Keywords- container wind energy, ducted wind turbine, wind

energy.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fig.1. Ducted Wind Turbine(DWT)
With the rapid growth of wind energy in recent years, wind
generation plays a more important role in global electricity
generating [1]. Wind energy matured to a level of
development.Now it is ready to become a generally accepted
utility generation technology [2]. In many countries, wind is
the source of power for sailing ships. With the development of
Fig.2 Duct
electric supply, there has been increasing use of small wind-
driven generators [3]. A wind turbine is a device that converts As the wind moves through the duct as shown in Fig.2,
wind pressure increases [7]. If a container with one-way valve
the kinetic energy of the wind into wind power. Mainly, there
is placed at the high wind pressure end, the air can be filled in
are two types of Wind turbines.They are Horizontal axis Wind
turbines (HAWT) and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) [4]. it.
The wind in the filled container can be further used to
Around 1998, many wind turbine manufacturers moved from
produce electricity by sending that wind through a reulator
constant speed systems manufacturing to variable speed
systems manufacturing with doubly-fed induction generators valve to a wind turbine using a duct.
The advantages of this method are
[5]. Horizontal axis Wind turbines (HAWT) are normally used
1. Yaw control [8] mechanism is not required for this
for Electricity generation and have a greater efficiency than
the vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). One type of HAWT is method. The wind turbines are moved as a whole
along the wind direction. This is called yaw control.
the unconventional modern ducted rotor wind turbine as
Since the ducts are used to store the pressurized air in
shown in Fig.1.
a container and then the stored air is used to generate
In practice, wind turbine’s outputs vary because of the
the electric power using wind turbine, this
change in wind speed [6]. Sometimes the wind speed is so
mechanism is not required for the wind turbine.
high that the wind turbine has to be shut down. There will be
However, the duct can be moved along the direction
times when there is no wind at all for the wind turbine to
of the wind.
generate any power. In this paper, a method is described to
store the wind in a container using a duct and the stored wind 2. Wind farms [9] are constructed in a large remote area
to convert the wind energy. If container wind energy

978-1-4673-8855-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 2017 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2017), Jan. 05 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA
is used, the wind turbines need not be at the large
remote area.
3. Fixed speed wind turbines can be used instead of
variable speed wind turbine.
4. This set up can be used as a small power station at
home too.
5. There is a control over the flow of wind to the wind
turbine. If the electric power is not needed, the
generation of electric power may be stopped by not
blowing the air into the wind turbine.
6. The wind blades are moved along the direction of
wind. This is called Pitch control. This is not required
since the wind flows only in one direction from the
airbag.
7. In hydro power plants, the water is stored in dams to
get more potential energy. This stored energy is used
to hit the water turbines to drive the electrical
generator. Similarly, the air can also be stored in a
container to get more potential energy. This stored
energy can be used further to hit the aero turbines to
drive the electrical generator.
8. In high winds, the wind turbines are stopped due to
the high velocity of the wind. In these conditions, the
containers will be useful. The high pressure of the
wind can be used to store the air in a container. This
stored energy can further be used to blow the aero
turbines to drive the electrical generator. The
container can be filled by the air from high wind
pressure end of the duct using a one-way vale or
check valve.
Air density is 1.225 kg/m3at sea level and at 150C according
to International Standard Atmosphere [10]. Water has a
desnsity of 1000kg/m3at 40C [11]. So definitely the container
needed for storing the air should have a higher volume when
compared to water.
II. BLOCK DIAGRAM
Fig.3.Container Filling
Fig.4.Block diagram of the Electricity Generation from air
filled container
The venturi effect is the jet effect; as with a funnel the
velocity of the air decreases as the cross-sectional area
increases, with the static pressure correspondingly increasing.
Using this concept, a container can be filled with air by
placing it at the high pressure end of the duct.As shown in the
container filling block diagram Fig.3, the container attached
with the outer port of the check valve is connected to the high
pressure end of the duct with the inner port of the check valve.
The container is allowed to get filled by the air. Once the
desired pressure of air is achieved in the container, the
container with the check valve is removed from the duct and
the inner port of the check valve is sealed with a cover.
Fig.4 shows the block diagram of the electricity generation
from the air filled container.The air filled container is used to
blow the aero turbine with a regulator valve and through a
duct.The aero turbine is attached to the Electrical Generator
through the gearing and coupling arrangement. The Electrical
Generator output is given to the electrical loads.
III. TYPES OF CONTAINERS
A container is a basic tool consisting of any device creating
a partially or fully enclosed space that can be used to contain,
store, and transport objects or materials.
There are different types of containers available in the
market to store wind energy. Those are gas cylinders [12],
airbags, and rubber made containers. One of the containers
which is airbag [13] is shown in the Fig.5.These containers are
used for storing the pressurized air using duct and check valve
arrangement. The air filled containers can be stored for future
use. Depending on the space available to store this air filled
containers and cost of the containers, the best container can be
chosen.
Fig.5. Air bag Container
IV. WORKING PRINCIPLE
Fig.6.Storing of air in container
Fig.6 shows the working principle of storing wind energy in
a container. The wind flows in the low-cross sectional area of
the duct. In the high-cross sectional area of the duct, inner port
of the check valve [14] is attached. When the wind pressure is
 2017 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2017), Jan. 05 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

more than the cracking pressure of the check valve, the air is
filled in the container. The air flow is one way. The air will not
return back from the container because of the check valve.
Once the container is filled with air till the reseal
pressure of the check valve, the container is taken out of the
duct. The filled container is sealed with a cover in the inner
port so that there is no return flow when the air is released
through the regulator valve to the wind turbine.The filled
container is then used to blow the air through the regulator
valve and duct into the wind turbine to produce electricity
with a control system as shown in Fig.7.
increased. The duct arrangement as shown in Fig.7, gives
increased velocity from the filled container.
V. PORTABILITY
Using the duct with check valve arrangement, the containers
can be filled with pressurized air. These air filled containers
can be ported to any place. These air filled containers can be
sold in market. With the wind turbine, the filled container and
the duct control system arrangement, the electric power can be
generated at any place.
VI. SIMULATION RESULTS

Fig.7 Filled container used to blow the wind turbine with Fig.8 Matlab Simulink Model of the wind speed regulation
control system

The wind speed sensor [15] senses the actual wind speed
and sends it to the microcontroller. The output of the
microcontroller is the error signal between actual wind speed
and the wind speed set in the microcontroller. This output is
given to the regulator valve [16] in the container. The speed of
the wind can be controlled using regulator valve which can be
controlled by using the microcontroller. This controlled wind
is blown to the wind turbine using a duct as shown in Fig.7.
This wind turbine is coupled to the electric generator using Fig.9 Matlab Simulink Model of the PID Controller
coupling and gearing arrangement. This electric power from
the electric generator is given to the electrical loads.

The average available wind power per unit area is

directly related to the average wind speed, which is given by

Pa(t)/A = ½ [ρ v(t)3] W/m2 (1)

Where
Pa (t) - Available wind power
A - Swept Area by the rotating blades of the wind Fig.10 Matlab Simulink Model of the Wind Speed Control
turbine System
ρ - Air Density
V (t) - Velocity of the Air

As per the above equation, if the velocity of the wind is

increased, the available wind power per unit area can be
 2017 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI -2017), Jan. 05 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA
Fig.11 Time vs. Torque Output of the Wind Turbine in the
scope of the Simulink Model for the Wind Speed Regulation
Fig.12.Matlab Simulink Model of the wind turbine using
container
Fig.13.Time vs. Torque Output of the Wind Turbine in the
scope of the Simulink Model for the fixed wind speed
The wind speed regulation system in Fig.8 was simulated
using the Matlab/Simulink using the wind speed control
system mentioned in references [17], [18] and [19]. The PID
Controller shown in Fig.9 was used. The controller and the
wind speed control systems were designed. The wind speed
control system is shown in Fig.10.The regulated wind was
given to the Wind Turbine Model. The time vs. Torque output
of the wind turbine is analyzed from the scope of the wind
speed regulation model. The torque remains constant at 0.65
N-m after 40 Seconds. The graph is shown in Fig.11 [20].
The Matlab Simulink model of the wind turbine using
container is shown in Fig.12. The Generator speed is taken as
1.5 per unit. The pitch angle of the wind turbine is kept
constant at 30 degrees, since the wind that flows to the wind
turbine is going to be in one direction. The wind speed is also
kept constant at 15 m/s. Wind speed from the container can be
varied according to the need by using the regulator valve. By
varying the opening of the regulator valve, the speed of the air
that hit the wind turbine can be changed. Once the desired
speed is set using microcontroller, wind speed that hit on the
wind turbine is constant. For that condition, the Matlab
Simulink model of the wind turbine is simulated as shown in
Fig.12.The scope output is drawn and the graph is as shown in
Fig.13. The graph gives the time vs. torque output of the wind
turbine for the container wind energy system for the fixed
wind speed. The torque of the wind turbine is 0.64 Nm for the
set conditions mentioned above. The torque is constant
throughout the time mentioned in the graph.
VII. CONCLUSION
Thus it is concluded that the containers can be used
for storing the wind energy using a duct with check valve. The
stored energy in the container can be used to blow the wind
turbine which in turn coupled with the Electrical Generator.
Once the container is empty, it can be refilled with the duct,
check valve and regulator valve arrangement. This way the
container wind energy can be used in wind turbines. This set
up can be used as a small power station at home too. It is not
needed that the wind power system has to be in operation
always.
Whenever the wind velocity is high, at that time, the
wind can be stored in more number of containers. These
pressurized air containers can be used for producing electrical
power whenever there is a need. These containers are portable
too. Since the containers are portable, the electrical power can
be generated using this containers, duct and wind turbine
control system,anywhere.
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