Vertical axis wind turbine

MECH 4010 Design Project

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Group 2 Jon DeCoste Denise McKay Brian Robinson Shaun Whitehead Stephen Wright

Supervisors Dr. Murat Koksal Dr. Larry Hughes Client Department of Mechanical Engineering Dalhousie University December 5, 2005

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With the recent surge in fossil fuels prices, demands for cleaner energy sources, and government funding incentives, wind turbines have become a viable technology for power generation. Currently, horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) dominate the wind energy market due to their large size and high power generation characteristics. However, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) are capable of producing a lot of power, and offer many advantages. The mechanical power generation equipment can be located at ground level, which makes for easy maintenance. Also, VAWT are omni-directional, meaning they do not need to be pointed in the direction of the wind to produce power. Finally, there is potential for large power generation with VAWT because their size can be increased greatly. However, there are also downfalls to the VAWT. Firstly, boundary layer affects from the ground influence the air stream incident on the VAWT, which in some cases leads to inconsistent wind patterns. Secondly, VAWT are not self-starting; currently, an outside power source is required to start turbine rotation until a certain rotational speed is reached.

The main objective of this project is to design and build a self-starting vertical axis wind turbine. This report outlines the first term efforts in the design of our full-scale VAWT, which is to be built early in the second term.

The self-starting issues surrounding VAWT will be tackled by the use of alternative blade profiles and pitching mechanisms. A model that carries out turbine theory calculations was created to aid in the design of the full-scale turbine. The model inputs include NACA 0012 airfoil lift and drag coefficients, angles of attack and