Vertical axis wind turbine

(Darrieus turbine-old technology for modern age)

Dejan Ivic 1304/11


Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WIND POWER 3
TYPES OF WIND TURBINES 4
DARRIEUS ROTOR THE ONLY COMMERCIAL VAWT 5
METHOD OF OPERATION 5
DARRIEUS ROTOR COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL WIND TURBINE 6
DARRIEUS ROTOR DESIGN FOR NEW AGE 7
SMALL VAWT TURBINE FOR EVERYDAY APPLICATIONS 7
SMALL VAWT DESIGN SUMMARY 8
CONCLUSION 10
REFERENCES 10



Introduction


HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WIND POWER


Wind has been utilized as a source of power for thousands of years for such
tasks as propelling sailing ships, grinding grain, pumping water, and powering
factory machinery. The worlds first wind turbine used to generate electricity
was built by a Dane, Poul la Cour, in 1891. It is especially interesting to note that La
Cour used the electricity generated by his turbines to electrolyze water, producing
hydrogen for gas lights in the local schoolhouse. In that regard we could say that he
was 100 years ahead of his time since the vision that many have for the twenty-first
century includes photovoltaic and wind power systems making hydrogen by
electrolysis to generate electric power in fuel cells.

In the United States the first wind-electric systems were built in the late 1890s; by the
1930s and 1940s, hundreds of thousands of small-capacity, wind electric systems
were in use in rural areas not yet served by the electricity grid. Subsequent interest in
wind systems declined as the utility grid expanded and became more reliable and
electricity prices declined. The oil shocks of the 1970s, which heightened awareness
of energy problems, coupled with substantial financial and regulatory incentives for
alternative energy systems, stimulated a renewal of interest in wind power.

Meanwhile, wind turbine technology development continued in Europe - especially in
Denmark, Germany, and Spain and those countries were ready when sales began to
boom in the mid-1990s.
Globally, the countries with the most installed wind capacity are: the world leader is
Germany, followed by Spain, the United States, Denmark, and India.



TYPES OF WIND TURBINES

Most early wind turbines were used to grind grain into flour, hence the name
windmill. Strictly speaking, therefore, calling a machine that pumps water or
generates electricity a windmill is somewhat of a misnomer. Instead, people are
using more accurate, but generally clumsier, terminology: Wind-driven generator,
wind generator, wind turbine, wind-turbine generator (WTG), and
wind energy conversion system (WECS) all are in use. For our purposes,
wind turbine will suffice even though often we will be talking about system
components (e.g., towers, generators, etc.) that clearly are not part of a turbine.
One way to classify wind turbines is in terms of the axis around which the
turbine blades rotate. Most are horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT), but there
are some with blades that spin around a vertical axis (VAWT).

While almost all wind turbines are of the horizontal axis type, there is still
some controversy over whether an upwind machine or a downwind machine is
best. A downwind machine has the advantage of letting the wind itself control the
yaw (the leftright motion) so it naturally orients itself correctly with respect to
wind direction. They do have a problem, however, with wind shadowing effects
of the tower. Every time a blade swings behind the tower, it encounters a brief
period of reduced wind, which causes the blade to flex. This flexing not only has
the potential to lead to blade failure due to fatigue, but also increases blade noise
and reduces power output.


Darrieus Rotor The only commercial
VAWT

METHOD OF OPERATION

In the original versions of the Darrieus design, the airfoils are arranged so that they
are symmetrical and have zero rigging angle, that is, the angle that the airfoils are set
relative to the structure on which they are mounted. This arrangement is equally
effective no matter which direction the wind is blowingin contrast to the
conventional type, which must be rotated to face into the wind.
When the Darrieus rotor is spinning, the airfoils are moving forward through the air
in a circular path. Relative to the blade, this oncoming airflow is added vectorially to
the wind, so that the resultant airflow creates a varying small positive angle of
attack (AoA) to the blade. This generates a net force pointing obliquely forwards
along a certain 'line-of-action'. This force can be projected inwards past the turbine
axis at a certain distance, giving a positive torque to the shaft, thus helping it to rotate
in the direction it is already travelling in. The aerodynamic principles which rotate
the rotor are equivalent to that in autogiros, and normal helicopters in autorotation.
As the aerofoil moves around the back of the apparatus, the angle of attack changes
to the opposite sign, but the generated force is still obliquely in the direction of
rotation, because the wings are symmetrical and the rigging angle is zero. The rotor
spins at a rate unrelated to the wind speed, and usually many times faster. The energy
arising from the torque and speed may be extracted and converted into useful power
by using an electrical generator. When the rotor is stationary, no net rotational force
arises, even if the wind speed rises quite highthe rotor must already be spinning to
generate torque. Thus the design is not normally self-starting. Under rare conditions,
Darrieus rotors can self-start, so some form of brake is required to hold it when
stopped.
One problem with the design is that the angle of attack changes as the turbine spins,
so each blade generates its maximum torque at two points on its cycle (front and back
of the turbine). This leads to a sinusoidal (pulsing) power cycle that complicates
design. In particular, almost all Darrieus turbines have resonant modes where, at a
particular rotational speed, the pulsing is at a natural frequency of the blades that can
cause them to (eventually) break. For this reason, most Darrieus turbines have
mechanical brakes or other speed control devices to keep the turbine from spinning at
these speeds for any lengthy period of time.
Another problem arises because the majority of the mass of the rotating mechanism is
at the periphery rather than at the hub, as it is with a propeller. This leads to very
high centrifugal stresses on the mechanism, which must be stronger and heavier than
otherwise to withstand them. One common approach to minimize this is to curve the
wings into an "egg-beater" shape (this is called a "troposkein" shape, derived from
the Greek for "the shape of a spun rope") such that they are self-supporting and do
not require such heavy supports and mountings.

DARRIEUS ROTOR COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL WIND TURBINE

In this configuration, the Darrieus design is theoretically less expensive than a
conventional type, as most of the stress is in the blades which torque against the
generator located at the bottom of the turbine. The only forces that need to be
balanced out vertically are the compression load due to the blades flexing outward
(thus attempting to "squeeze" the tower), and the wind force trying to blow the
whole turbine over, half of which is transmitted to the bottom and the other half of
which can easily be offset with guy wires.

By contrast, a conventional design has all of the force of the wind attempting to push
the tower over at the top, where the main bearing is located. Additionally, one
cannot easily use guy wires to offset this load, because the propeller spins both
above and below the top of the tower. Thus the conventional design requires a strong
tower that grows dramatically with the size of the propeller. Modern designs can
compensate most tower loads of that variable speed and variable pitch.

In overall comparison, while there are some advantages in Darrieus design there are
many more disadvantages, especially with bigger machines in the MW class. The
Darrieus design uses much more expensive material in blades while most of the
blade is too close to the ground to give any real power. Traditional designs assume
that wing tip is at least 40m from ground at lowest point to maximize energy
production and lifetime. So far there is no known material (not even carbon fiber)
which can meet cyclic load requirements.



DARRIEUS ROTOR DESIGN FOR NEW AGE

VAWT design, like the design of any other wind turbine, is a series of tradeoffs. For
each plus there is a minus. We can't evaluate design elements in isolation. We must
consider the wind turbine as complete package.
For example, the lower blade speed of modern VAWTs is a design element, a
byproduct of which is lower noise emissions. However, VAWTs derive more of
their power from torque than conventional wind turbines because they spin at lower
speeds. To handle the greater torque, the blades and their supports must be stronger.
This results in greater mass, and hence, often greater cost than for similar
components of a conventional wind turbine. Further, says Tangler, the blades of
VAWTs only operate at optimum aerodynamic performance over a small portion of
their carousel path, and they typically use less efficient symmetrical airfoils than the
cambered (asymmetrical) airfoils used on conventional wind turbines. All in all, says
Tangler, VAWTs of the 1980s weighed more and were less efficient than
conventional turbines of the period.
That said, VAWTs could be cost-effective and even more-cost effective than
conventional wind turbines if they were cheap and reliable enough. That is
ultimately the test, the Holy Grail for modern VAWTsor wind turbines of any
stripe.

SMALL VAWT TURBINE FOR EVERYDAY APPLICATIONS

Because of scale effects, it is unlikely that the small wind turbines of the modern
VAWT revival will approach the historical performance of FloWind's large Darrieus
wind turbines, the most successful VAWTs ever built.
Many manufacturers of the small VAWTs of the vertical-axis revival, like FloWind
before them, often rate the power output of their turbines at a much higher level than
conventional wind turbines. This can be seen in the rotor loading of modern VAWTs
that are about double that of conventional turbines.
The characteristic loading of conventional small wind turbines is about 250 W/m.
For example, the Bergey Excel has a rotor loading of 260 W/m while that of
Southwest Windpower's Skystream is 166 W/m. Southwest Windpower's Air 403
was notorious for its high rotor loading of 373 W/m. Fortunately, they cut in half
the rating of the Air Breeze, the newest model in the Air series, to only 186 W/m, a
much more realistic value.
Thanks to the great development of power electronics, small VAWT have found
place in small power systems such as: a system for powering GSM signal stations,
portable military power systems, power systems with cogeneration.

SMALL VAWT DESIGN SUMMARY

The high rotor loading of many modern VAWTs doesn't mean that the wind turbine
is capable of generating more electricity than a conventional wind turbine of the
same swept area. It simply means that the wind turbine uses a much larger generator
relative to the area swept by the wind turbine rotor. Remember that it is the swept
area that is the prime determinant of how much energy a wind turbine will capture
not the size of the generator.
However, high rotor loading does suggest that a VAWT manufacturer may be
overstating expected performance. Rotor loading greater than 300 W/m for small
wind turbines should be viewed with skepticism, whether on the over-hyped Air 403
or on a small VAWT.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, several designs for vertical-axis wind turbines
with straight blades emerged. These H-rotors used articulating blades that changed
pitch as they moved around the carousel path. Articulating H-rotors never performed
as advertised and were mechanically unreliable.

A lot of turbines with this type of rotor
are still running in small power plants
designed to supply GSM stations or
stations for weather observation that are
located far from conventional electric
grid.

The recent VAWT revival has seen the
introduction of several new small H-
rotors that use fixed blades. These rotors
use blades that are fixed in pitch like
those of Darrieus turbines. Two examples
are turbines made by the Canadian company, Cleanfield, and California's PacWind.
In contrast to earlier articulating VAWTs, these turbines are simpler. Unfortunately,
there is little to no information on how these turbines perform in the field.
As with conventional wind turbines, new vertical-axis designs should have some
aerodynamic means of protecting the rotor, should the normal braking system fail.
Some Darrieus turbines of the 1970s and 1980s used air brakes, some (FloWind) did
not, and relied solely on their mechanical brakes.



Conclusion

In conclusion, modern VAWTs may or may not work reliably, may or may not
deliver the performance promised, and may or may not be more cost-effective than
conventional wind turbines. Depending on the mounting location VAWTs can run
very efficiently and at that way enable electric power supplying for unapproachable
users. On the other hand VAWTs are not cost effective in urban areas.

References

1.1 Gilbert Masters, Efficiency and Renewable, Los Angles 2009.
1.2 Fitzgerald Kingsley, Electric Machinery third edition
1.3 Slobodan N. Vukosavic, Elektricne masine, ETF Beograd 2010.
1.4 www.windpower.org