Digital Modeling Vertical Axis Wind Turbines with a Wind Concentrator
摘要
It is known that the efficiency of wind power plants is very low at wind speeds of 2–5 m/s. Such wind speeds exist in many areas. One of the current challenges in the field of wind energy is the development of additional devices that direct the wind to the turbine blades to harness wind energy at such low speeds. This study examines the possibility of eliminating the harmful torque generated in a Savonius turbine by changing the direction of the wind acting behind the blades. A wind concentrator was developed to change the wind speed and then direct it to the rotor blades. The wind concentrator has two wind turbines with a vertical rotor and is designed to operate in areas with low wind speeds. The study focuses on observing changes in the speed of wind flow in a wind concentrator and turbine, changes in pressure acting on the blades, and moments of rotating force through both mathematical modeling and experiments. According to the research results, airflow speed of 5 m/s at the entrance to the wind turbine changed up to 8–9 m/s due to the wind concentrator. By directing the airflow to the concave surfaces of the rotor blades, no harmful torques were generated. As a result, the efficiency was 45–50% higher than that of a turbine without a concentrator. It was also found that the net pressure created in all turbine blades varies in the range of 25–40 Pa depending on the position of the blade and increases the power factor to 0.25.