Effect of Rotor Parameters on the efficiency of a Wind Turbine

Muhammad Armaan

What are wind turbines? Related theories

 Converts kinetic energy from wind into
mechanical energy, which is then transformed
into electrical power [8]
 Consist of rotors, and generator
Benefits
 Reduces reliance on fossil fuels
 Produces clean, renewable energy
 Does not emit greenhouse gases [10]
 Provide jobs and economic development [11]
 Reduce energy production costs
 Bernoulli's principle: When the wind blows past the blades of a
wind turbine, the blades create a difference in pressure
between the top and bottom of the blades. This difference in
pressure causes the blades to spin.
 Newton's third law of motion: As the blades of a wind turbine
intercept and deflect the wind, the wind pushes on the blades,
causing them to turn.
 Conservation of Energy: Wind turbines convert the kinetic
energy of the wind into mechanical energy through the rotation
of their blades, and subsequently into electrical energy through
the generator.
 The Betz limit: This limit states that the maximum amount of
energy that a wind turbine can extract from the wind is 59.3%.

Goal of the experiments Experiments

 Study the affect of following parameters on wind  Effect of number of blades
turbine efficiency:  Used 3, 4, and 6 bladed turbines
 Number of blades  Effect of blade length
 Length of blades  15 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm
 Pitch angle of blades  Effect of pitch angle
 15o, 45o, and 80o
 In each experiment, we measured the generated voltage as a
measure of efficiency.

Experimental setup

Results