Abstract
Large Scale Wind Turbines (LSWTs) have been extensively examined for decades but only few studies have been conducted on the small scale wind turbines (SSWTs) especially for low wind speed applications. This study provides the theoretical and experimental results on a 40. cm diameter small wind energy portable turbine (SWEPT) with rated wind speed of 4.0. m/s. The wind tunnel experiments revealed that SWEPT has rated power output of 1. W and is capable of producing power output up to 2.2. W at wind speed of 5.5. m/s. In comparison to the published literature, SWEPT is one of the most efficient wind turbines at the small scale (rotor diameter<50. cm) and very low wind speed (<5. m/s). SWEPT demonstrated a power coefficient of 32% and overall efficiency of 21% at its rated wind speed. We believe that the results reported in this study will be immediately applicable for developing power sources for the wireless sensor nodes used in structural health monitoring on bridges and highways and security systems in common household.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 12-19 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics |
| Volume | 118 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by NIST program and NSF I/UCRC: Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS) .
Keywords
- Aerodynamics
- Portable power
- Power coefficient
- Small scale wind turbine
- Wind energy
- Wind tunnel
