CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING OF A VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

Irfan Mehfooz

B. Eng. Mechanical Engineering Project Report Department of Mechanical Engineering Curtin University 2013

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27C Beveridge Street, Bentley, WA 6102

28/09/13

The Head Department of Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, WA 6102

Dear Sir

I submit this report entitled Construction and Testing of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine based on Mechanical Project 491/493, undertaken by me as part requirement for the degree of B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering.

Yours faithfully

Irfan Mehfooz

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to acknowledge the people mentioned below; Firstly, the project supervisor, Andrew King, for his guidance to get the author through the hurdles throughout the duration of the project and always directing towards the goals. David Collier, workshop technician, for sharing his suggestions and workshop experiences to improve the designs. Also, for reminding that every project involves safety issues and that it is a major priority that must be thought of. City of Victoria Park Council for their help and support in making some time to listen to the wind turbine project testing process and allowing the testing of the wind turbine on campus. Ryan M. Barashi, project partner, for his assistance throughout the project and always bringing forth his great ideas and polishing it to improve it further. Zeeshan Mehfooz, brother, for his knowledge in Microsoft software packages and passing on the knowledge to the author.

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Abstract Fossil fuels are known to be the source of most of the energy that is being produced to fulfil the requirements of the citizens of earth. However, the fact that is not known about them is that they are depleting at a rate faster than their production. Renewable energy sources are thought of an alternative source which is capable of dominating fossil fuels and can fulfil the needs of earth without any harmful impact on the environment. Wind turbines are being studied extensively as a source of renewable energy whether it is a horizontal axis or vertical axis wind turbine. The project is a continuation of work that was done in the past two years which included the designing and construction of a modular vertical axis wind turbine. It was required by the author to design an emergency brake with the ability to stop the high speed rotation of the wind turbine if it malfunctions and test the performance of the wind turbine. A few modifications were made to designs brought forward in past years in order to improve and construct a more modular emergency brake. 3D models were created in order to accomplish the designing stage of the emergency brake. Calculations were performed in order to check if the particular components of the emergency brake could sustain the loads. Run Down tests were performed on the wind turbine and recommendations were made for the performance testing.

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Nomenclature K.E m v PW As P R Va Vc Vn V L D l N c s Cp P A F t fc x CD Pwind Kinetic Energy Mass of air Mean velocity of air Wind power Density of air Swept area Atmospheric Pressure Turbine radius Induced velocity Chordal velocity component Normal velocity component Wind velocity Azimuth angle Angular velocity of turbine Angle of attack Length of blades Rotor diameter Disturbed air stream of the rotor Number of Blades Chord Length Solidity Tip Speed Ratio Pressure coefficient Power extracted Cross-sectional area Shear/Axial Force Axial Stress Shear stress Angular acceleration Time Friction coefficient Spring displacement Drag coefficient Wind pressure [viii] Joules kg m/s Watts kgm3 m2 Pa m m/s m/s m/s m/s
0

rpm
0

m m m m Watts m2 N Pa Pa rad/s2 s m Watts

Fwind g q Su Sy E s

Wind force Acceleration due to gravity Damping coefficient Ultimate Strength Yield Strength Elastic Modulus Density of steel

N m/s2 Pa Pa Pa kgm3

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Table of Contents
1.0 1.1 1.2 2.0 2.1 2.2 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 Project Objectives ...................................................................................... 2 Project Proceedings and Results ................................................................. 3 BACKGROUND THEORY........................................................................... 5 Brief History of Wind Turbine.................................................................... 7 Wind Energy Theory ................................................................................ 14 Wind Properties ................................................................................. 14 Blade Design and Characteristics....................................................... 17 Wind Turbine Design Parameters ...................................................... 21

2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.3

Design Analysis of Brake components...................................................... 24 Types of loading ................................................................................ 24

2.3.1 2.4

Balancing of Rotating Machines ............................................................... 25 Static Unbalance................................................................................ 27 Couple Unbalance ............................................................................. 27 Quasi-Static Unbalance ..................................................................... 28 Dynamic Unbalance .......................................................................... 28

2.4.1 2.4.2 2.4.3 2.4.4 2.5

Wind Turbine Classification ..................................................................... 29 HAWT vs. VAWT ............................................................................ 29 Lift vs. Drag ...................................................................................... 30

2.5.1 2.5.2 3.0 3.1 3.2 4.0 5.0

PREVIOUS CONSTRUCTION ................................................................... 31 Straight Bladed VAWT ......................................................................... 31 Construction of the VAWT....................................................................... 33 EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEM .......................................................... 37 CONSTRUCTION....................................................................................... 39

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5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0

Connector .................................................................................................39 Bracket .....................................................................................................40 Backing Plate............................................................................................41 Hinges ......................................................................................................42 Pivot .........................................................................................................43 Springs .....................................................................................................44 Lever ........................................................................................................45 Friction Belt/Rubber Pads .........................................................................46 Other Components ....................................................................................47 PERFORMANCE BRAKE ..........................................................................49 TESTS CONDUCTED.................................................................................51 DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................53 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................59 SAFETY CONSIDERATION ......................................................................61 CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................................63 REFERENCES ............................................................................................65

APPENDIX A FORMULAS USED.....................................................................69 APPENDIX B MATERIAL SUMMARY AND REQUIRED ASSUMPTIONS ... 71 APPENDIX C REVISED CALCULATIONS ......................................................74 APPENDIX D WELD CALCULATIONS ...........................................................81 APPENDIX E LOAD ON BOLTS AND BOLT STRENGTH .............................83 APPENDIX F BOLT & WELD CAPACITIES ....................................................84 APPENDIX G SUPPORT CALCULATIONS TO PREVENT WIND TURBINE LIFTING ................................................................................................................85 APPENDIX H STRENGHT vs. THE LOAD APPLIED ON COMPONENTS.....87

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APPENDIX I SOLIDITY OF THE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE ........... 89 APPENDIX J DAMPING COEFFICIENT .......................................................... 90 APPENDIX K SUPPORTING FILES ................................................................. 92 APPENDIX L CAPTURED PHOTO OF THE WIND TURBINE FOLLOWED BY THE DESIGNS CREATED OF THE COMPONENTS .................................... 93

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Heron Alexandria - Wind-Powered Organ (Spera, 2009, 5)........................7 Figure 2: Ancient Chinese ships (Tong, 2010, 7).......................................................8 Figure 3: Cog-and-Rig Gear Mechanism (Spera, 2009, 13) .......................................9 Figure 4: Central Spindle to Rotate the Wind Turbine to or away from the wind (Spera, 2009, 13) ......................................................................................................9 Figure 5: Diagram of Post-Mill Brake (Spera, 2009, 19) ...........................................9 Figure 6: Blyth Windmill (Musgrove , 2010, 59) ....................................................10 Figure 7: Charles F. Brush Windmill (Righter, 1996, 44) ........................................11 Figure 8: Balaclava Wind Turbine (Musgrove, 2010)..............................................12 Figure 9: Darrieus Wind Turbine (Musgrove, 2010, 97) ..........................................13 Figure 10: Modern VAWT Left: Eddy GT Wind Turbine. (www.inhabitat.com, 2010) Right: Illumiante Highways with Turbine Light (www.Themoderngreen.com, 2010) ......................................................................................................................13 Figure 11: Lanchester-Betz Limit (Spera, 2009, 83) ................................................15 Figure 12: NACA airfoil geometrical construction (Cantwell, 2013) .......................17 Figure 13: Flow Velocities of Straight-Bladed Darrieus-Type VAWT (Islam, David and Fartaj, 2008, 1096) ...........................................................................................20 Figure 14: Relationship between Lift and Drag Forces with respect to the Angle of Attack (Jain, 2011)..................................................................................................20 Figure 15: Lift Coefficient with respect to the Angle of Attack for a Symmetric Airfoil (Jain, 2011) .................................................................................................21 Figure 16: Swept Area of different styles of Wind Turbines (Doerner, 1997) ..........22 Figure 17: Axial Loading on a bar and the resulting Axial Stress on an Element of the bar (Juvinall, 2000) ...........................................................................................24 Figure 18: Direct Shear Loading (Juvinall, 2000) ....................................................25 Figure 19: 60 MW Steam Turbine: not under operation (Entwistle, 2012) ...............26 Figure 20: 60 MW Steam Turbine: after failure (Entwistle, 2012) ...........................26 Figure 21: Static Balancing of an unbalanced Rotating Shaft (McMillan, 2004) ...... 27 Figure 22: Couple Unbalance (McMillan, 2004) .....................................................27 Figure 23: Quasi-static Unbalance (McMillan, 2004) ..............................................28 [xiii]

Figure 24: Dynamic Unbalance (McMillan, 2004) .................................................. 28 Figure 25: Exploded view of Turbine Blade (Page, 2011) ....................................... 32 Figure 26: Main Shaft Flange (Page, 2011) ............................................................. 32 Figure 27: Base of the Wind Turbine (Page, 2011) ................................................. 32 Figure 28: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine following the completion of construction in 2012 (Conway, 2012) ............................................................................................. 34 Figure 29: Emergency Brakes 3D model connected to the Rotating Shaft (Conway, 2012) ...................................................................................................................... 34 Figure 30: Performance Brakes (Conway, 2012) ..................................................... 35 Figure 31: Connector .............................................................................................. 39 Figure 32: Bracket .................................................................................................. 40 Figure 33: Backing Plates ....................................................................................... 41 Figure 34: Hinge connection of the Backing Plate .................................................. 42 Figure 35: Pivot with the lever connected ............................................................... 43 Figure 36: New Spring Purchased Assembled & Old Spring on the Right ............... 44 Figure 37: Lever connection: Spring - Steel Wires .................................................. 45 Figure 38: Three layers of Rubber Slices stuck on the Backing Plate ...................... 46 Figure 39: Ferrules (Talurit, 2013) .......................................................................... 47 Figure 40: Friction Belt and Newton Balance Connection ....................................... 49 Figure 41: The Taper Bearing housing and Transparent Acrylic Top Plate (Conway, 2012) ...................................................................................................................... 54 Figure 42: The Taper Bearing and Transparent Acrylic Top Plate with the Rust ..... 55 Figure 43: Blade Profile.......................................................................................... 57 Figure 44: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Emergency and Performance Brakes .. 93

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List of Tables
Table 1: Beaufort scale (UNC, 2001) ........................................................................6 Table 2: Curtin University Wind Speed Data ..........................................................15 Table 3: Weibull Distributions for various Mean Wind Speeds (Tong, 2010, 13) .... 16 Table 4: Advantages and Drawbacks of different types of Wind Turbine ................29 Table 5: Minor Components ...................................................................................47 Table 6: Run Down Test Data .................................................................................90

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
The worlds economy has seen a continuous growth in the past two decades due to the consumption of fossil fuels, coal and natural gas to produce electrical energy. It is known that the availability of these fossil fuels is limited on earth and the growth of them requires millions of years whilst the energy consumption is growing with the increase in population (Energy Policy, 2010). Not only the need of additional energy is increasing, the impact on the environment due to the consumption of the fossil fuels is also damaging because of the production of Greenhouse Gases. 91% of the global carbon emission comes from the fossil fuels (Global Carbon Emissions, 2010). The contribution of Australia in emitting the Greenhouse Gas to the atmosphere is approximately 1.5% of the global emissions which makes it one of the largest contaminators (Australian Emissions, 2009). In order to reduce this contribution, Australian government brought forth a plan called Renewable Energy Target scheme. As it is obvious from its name, the target was to reduce the percentage contribution of the global emission by making use of renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels to produce 20% of national electrical supply by 2020 (Renewable Energy Target, 2012). This plan was divided into two different parts i.e. Large-scale Renewable Energy Target and Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Large-scale focuses on the development of wind turbines while small-scale is more focused towards solar panels and solar water heaters. In recent years, renewable energy system has been getting more attention due to environmental concerns like climate change and other factors. These concerns have encouraged the need of finding an alternate source to produce electricity and renewable energy has been chosen due to its never-ending natural resources i.e. wind, sun rays and tides. Wind turbine has been seen as one of the solutions to eliminate greenhouse gases and has been studied vastly. Tong (2010, 3) stresses on the usage of wind turbine and expects that wind turbine would take a higher porting in power generation in near future. Wind turbine could be of two types i.e. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) or Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). HAWT has gain much success in the power generation industries and thus, VAWT is [1]

being studied extensively due to its own advantages such as its application in residential areas where there is low wind speed and it can accept winds from any direction (Spera, 2009). VAWT is further divided into two different types i.e. Savonius (Drag type VAWT) and Darrieus (Lift type VAWT). Drag type wind turbine is limited in efficiency in terms of aerodynamics. It works when the wind pushes on the blades and rotates the rotor. Such a wind turbine can never have rotational speed faster than the wind speed. However, a lift type wind turbine can rotate faster than the wind speed (Nelson, 2009).

1.1 Project Objectives

It must be noted that this project is a work of two persons i.e. the author and Ryan M. Barashi. The work done on the project has been equally shared. This project is based upon previous projects, therefore, in order to understand the progressions made in the current project, full knowledge of the past project work must be understood. The project mainly commenced in 2010 which included the designs of small scale wind turbines. Helical and straight blades were studied and constructed during that year and it was concluded that the particular wind turbine would not perform as a lift type wind turbine. Later in 2011, it was decided to design a full-scale Straight-Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (SB-VAWT) which was modular and could accommodate 3 to 6 blades. In 2012, the designs presented in the previous year were reviewed and after a few modifications, the construction of the SB-VAWT was finished. The objective was to design and construct an emergency brake for the wind turbine by reviewing the recommendations and designs provided in past years. Once the designs are finalized, the materials required to construct the emergency brakes were to be sourced. The next phase of the project was to test the wind turbine and for that a suitable site must be found with a reasonable wind flow and electrical sockets if any testing devices required electricity to function. The results obtained from the testing were then to be discussed and further modifications would be made in order to optimize the wind turbine.

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1.2 Project Proceedings and Results

The project was proceeded by reviewing the designs brought forth in previous years. The previous designs were assessed and it was concluded that if installed, it has a very high chance of failing. These designs were completely modified due to the high forces involved in them. The suppliers were then found to purchase the required material needed to construct the wind turbine and some of the components were able to be manufactured in the workshop. After the purchasing and manufacturing of all the components was done, it was all assembled which had quite some issues due to the wrong assumptions and calculations done in previous years and was followed. Those calculations were revised and the assembly was completed. The next phase of the project was testing which needed approvals from the hierarchy i.e. Head of Department and the City of Victoria Park Council. The City of Victoria Park Council was seen to obtain the approval for testing and as it was not under their jurisdiction, the Council had no power over the site provided the surrounding residents are not disturbed. Attaining an approval from the site management was quite a challenge and was not obtained due to Curtin University bureaucracy. However, a safety and risk analysis was done and a testing plan was made in order to systemize everything and follow a procedure. The measuring devices required and best suited for testing were recommended but not installed on the wind turbine due to time constraints.

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2.0 BACKGROUND THEORY

The largest energy source, sun, is the source of wind energy. It is caused by the nuclear fusion process of hydrogen into helium that occurs in sun which creates heat and electromagnetic radiation. Most of this radiation is lost in space while some is intercepted by the earth. The amount of radiation that is intercepted by the earth is enough to fulfill the energy needs. The amount of solar energy that is received by the earth is approximately 1.8 x 1011 MW. 2% of this solar input is converted into wind energy and 35% of it is dissipated within 1km of earths surface. This means that the total wind energy that is available after all the losses is about 1.26 x 109 MW which is more than enough that is required to fulfill the energy consumption needs (Tong, 2010). The energy consumption trend keeps on increasing each year, about 10% more fuel is being consumed in the current world than it was a century ago (The Oil Drum, 2012). The ruling aspect of wind energy that makes it so eye catching is that it is dependent on air which is never-ending compared with depleting fossil fuels is more preferable. As wind power depends on air to generate electricity, it does not emit any Greenhouse gases and thus, is not or very less harmful to the environment. The energy used in its construction can be compensated by the energy that will be produced by the wind turbine and the only cost involved with it would be required for its maintenance and repair. Unlike Nuclear power generation, wind energy does not have any radioactive waste and safety hazards associated with it.

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Wind depends on the atmospheric pressure gradient to occur. If the difference in the pressure difference is higher, the wind speed would be higher. The highest wind recorded in Perth was 74.2 km/h on 28th November with an average of 9.8 km/h in 2012 (Perth Wind Statistics, 2012). According the Beaufort scale, Speed Force Km/h 0 1 2 3 4 <2 1-5 6-11 12-19 20-29 Calm Light air Light Breeze Gentle Breeze Moderate Breeze Fresh Breeze Sea like a mirror Ripples Small Wavelets Large Wavelets Small Waves Smoke rises Smoke drifts and leaves rustle Wind felt Flags extended Dust and small branches move Small trees begin to sway Large branches move Whole trees in motion Difficult to walk against wind Minor structural damage Trees uprooted Widespread damage Devastation Name Sea Conditions Land Conditions

30-39

Moderate Waves

40-50

Strong Breeze

Large Waves

51-61

Near Gale

Mounting Sea Moderately High Waves High Waves Very High Waves Exceptionally High Waves 14m waves

62-74

Gale

9 10 11 12

76-87 88-102 103118 119+

Strong Gale Storm Violent Storm Hurricane

Table 1: Beaufort scale (UNC, 2001)

it can be said that Perth lies in the Light Breeze region on average which can rise up to Gale or Strong Gale region occasionally. [6]

2.1 Brief History of Wind Turbine

The genesis of wind turbine is lost, however, its existence as a provider as a mechanical power is known. The first use of the technique was first seen in Heron Alexandrias Pneumatica where a wind wheel operates an organ as shown in the image below.

Figure 1: Heron Alexandria - Wind-Powered Organ (Spera, 2009, 5)

There were a few mentions before the actual first record of a vertical axis windmill but they are very doubtful. In 9th century, the first accepted record of a vertical axis windmill was in Persia which was used to drive mills and pump water. In 1963, it was seen that 50 mills of the same kind seen earlier in 9th century were still operating and it was estimated that in 120-day windy season they produce about 6,000 tons of grain (Spera, 2009). Chinese have developed so many engineering artifacts but there is no record found of them inventing a windmill, however, Tong (2010) and Spera (2009) stated that it is quite well-known that vertical axis windmill was invented by the Chinese and was used for sailing purposes.

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Figure 2: Ancient Chinese ships (Tong, 2010, 7)

According to Spera (2009), the Europeans were the ones who yielded effective horizontal axis wind turbines which were also known as Post-Mills. The Europeans Post Mills contained four sails (flat boards in early inventions) which were connected to a horizontal shaft. A few problems associated with this set-up were the transmission of power from the horizontal shaft to the vertical shaft to operate, yaw control, and emergency braking system. The first problem was solved by using a gear system as shown below in figure 3. The second and third problems were solved by simply rotating the windmill towards and away from the wind as shown in figure 4 and by installing a frictional braking onto the rotor. The makers of horizontal axis wind turbine had discovered lift type wind turbine and successfully used it but they were oblivious.

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Figure 3: Cog-and-Rig Gear Mechanism (Spera, 2009, 13)

Figure 4: Central Spindle to Rotate the Wind Turbine to or away from the wind (Spera, 2009, 13)

The brake that was installed on the Post-Mill was simply a band that creates friction whenever comes in contact with the rotating shaft of the windmill. One end of the friction band was fixed while the other was connected to a lever. The catch plate had a notch that when engaged, de-activates the brake, whilst when not engaged, activates the brake as shown below.

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Figure 5: Diagram of Post-Mill Brake (Spera, 2009, 19)

The application of wind was not just used to operate windmills but also in other tasks such as metal smelting processes. The strong winds during monsoon season were used to supply enough air to the furnaces to raise the temperature well above 11000C to melt iron. The process was used to produce high-carbon steel (Tong, 2010). Windmill Technology had developed enormously throughout history in order to make the millers work easier and safer. In 1881, it was first thought of using windmill to run a generator in order to charge batteries by Sir William Thomson (Spera, 2009). It was predicted by Wolff (1885), The application of the windmill to this purpose will soon come actively into play when storage batteries have been developed to a greater success than is attained at the present time. The idea of Sir William Thomson spread like wildfire and was noted widely which encouraged Professor James Blyth to manufacture and test his vertical axis windmill for charging storage batteries in 1887. His windmill was successfully used for years to light his cottage. James Blyth was known for his knowledge in electrical matters but his windmill was seen to be quite basic (Musgrove, 2010).

Figure 6: Blyth Windmill (Musgrove , 2010, 59)

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This prediction of Wolff was changed into reality when industrialist in electric field, Charles F. Brush, manufactured a horizontal axis windmill shown below that was capable of generating 12kW of DC power for charging storage batteries in 1888 (Spera, 2009).

Figure 7: Charles F. Brush Windmill (Righter, 1996, 44)

The use of windmill to generate electricity was consistently improved throughout history. After the innovative ideas of Brush and Blyth, a few problems were faced such as the continual variations in the wind speed which were seen as a minor concern if the windmill is only used to grinding purposes but with electricitygenerating windmills, they were the cause of major problems with battery storage systems. Poul la Cour, native of Denmark, invented a device in 1891 which he called kratostat which was used to smooth out the power fluctuation due to the variation in wind [11]

speed (Musgrove, 2010). La Cour was very concerned about the people living in rural areas and wanted to improve their living conditions by manufacturing a windmill to provide them with electricity. This device was used in two different windmills for power- smoothing purposes each gave an output of up to 9kW. In 1908, when la Cour passed away, his device was in use in 32 different windmills to provide electricity (Musgrove, 2010). However, oil burning engines evolved rapidly and attracted people from everywhere to use them as an alternative source as they were more affordable. Windmills downfall was seen from then onwards until World War I in 1914. A few not so successful projects were seen by Savonius in 1922 and Flettner in 1926 but there innovative ideas were used for different purposes. Flettner tried his idea on a ship with two vertical rotating cylinders mounted on the deck of the ship connected to motors creating a boundary layer and experiences force when wind blows through it. This ship crossed the Atlantic in 1925 (Musgrove, 2010). However, his windmill was not so successful with power coefficient of 0.14. Savonius windmill invented a vertical axis windmill whose blades created an S-shape with power coefficient of 0.2 and
Figure 8: Balaclava Wind Turbine (Musgrove, 2010)

solidity of 100%. Another problem with it was that it could not be turned out of wind. A successful project seen in the inter-war years was the Russian wind turbine constructed in 1931 near Balaclava. AC power was supplied for the first time to the electricity distribution system through this windmill with an output of up to 100kW in a wind speed 11m/s (Musgrove, 2010).

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In 1925, George Darrieus, a French wind turbine expert invented a vertical axis wind turbine with curved blades which were not given much attention during the time of its invention but later, Raj Rangi and Peter South revisited his design after the oil crisis in 1973 (Musgrove, 2010) . It was discovered that the two curved blades take power from the wind regardless of its direction.

Figure 9: Darrieus Wind Turbine (Musgrove, 2010, 97)

Further improvements such as blade types, length, size and number etc. were made in order to improve the efficiency of the wind turbine. A few modern wind turbines are shown below.

Figure 10: Modern VAWT Left: Eddy GT Wind Turbine. (www.inhabitat.com, 2010) Right: Illumiante Highways with Turbine Light (www.Themoderngreen.com, 2010)

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2.2 Wind Energy Theory

Wind energy is a form of kinetic energy created by the movement of air which can be converted into electrical energy or can also be used to pump water, sail ships or grind grains. In order to understand the theory behind the conversion, the characteristics of wind energy must be known. 2.2.1 Wind Properties Wind Power: Kinetic Energy of any moving or rotating object is given by, 1 (1) 2 2 where m is the mass of the air and v is the mean velocity of air over a given . = period of time. By differentiating the kinetic energy with respect to time, the relation of wind power can be achieved. 1 = 2 2 It is known that the relation of mass with density is given by, = (2)

(3)

By substituting in equation 2, the available wind power can be obtained 1 = 3 2 (4)

where is the density of air and A is swept area of the blade. The available power calculation was done by assuming the mean wind speed around the testing location which is shown in APPENDIX C. It was estimated by Lanchester and Betz that an ideal wind turbine can convert a maximum of 59.26% of kinetic energy to wind energy which has now been given a name called Lanchester-Betz Limit (Tong, 2010, 21).

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Figure 11: Lanchester-Betz Limit (Spera, 2009, 83)

Wind Speed: Wind speed is a necessity for a wind turbine to operate and it must be around a reasonable range in a location with constant flow. The wind speed data for Bentley (Curtin University) was taken from the Bureau of Meteorology shown below. 9AM Wind Speed Data in Bentley (Curtin University) Annual Site Average Max Wind Speed Recorded Min Wind Speed Recorded 7.3 (km/h) 11.1 (km/h) 5.0 (km/h) 2.03 (m/s) 3.08 (m/s) 1.4 (m/s)

Table 2: Curtin University Wind Speed Data

The data provided above seem really low but wind flow is variable and thus, it is possible to say that the wind flow may be much higher than the data provided above as mentioned in previous sections. Furthermore, Perth wind statistics were observed for the date 30th August and the average wind speed obtained was 4.68 m/s (Perth Wind Statistics, 2012). All data of the wind speed may be found in the CD attached to this report.

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Wind Turbulence & Rotor Speed: The fluctuation in wind speed with respect to time affects the overall mechanical power output which can damage the wind turbine and reduce its predicted life time. During the selection of a testing location, it is of vital importance to have the knowledge about the wind turbulence around the site. The approximate probability of mean wind speed fluctuation can be seen in table 3. Mean Wind Speed (m/s) Probability (%) 2 6 10 16 20 34 16 11 9 7.5

Table 3: Weibull Distributions for various Mean Wind Speeds (Tong, 2010, 13)

Like constant wind speed, constant rotor speed is needed for continuous electricity generation. Rotor speed could be of two types i.e. Constant or Variable. Grid connected wind turbines need to be synchronised with the grid frequency but their optimum efficiency is only achieved at the design air speed. Wind turbine with variable rotor speed optimizes itself with the change in wind speed and tries to maintain the tip speed ratio.

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2.2.2 Blade Design and Characteristics Blade Profile: Blades are the most essential part of the lift type wind turbines unlike the Savonius wind turbines which just require the wind to push the blade. Choosing the blade is the most critical decision as it is that provides lift and drag effects to the wind turbine. The blade chosen for the wind turbine was a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) profile with four digits. Each of the four digits of the blade profile can be used to find their aerodynamic properties.

Figure 12: NACA airfoil geometrical construction (Cantwell, 2013)

The first digit represents the camber length (m) in percentage of the airfoil, The second digit indicates the alignment of the maximum camber (p) in tenths of chord and the third digit signifies the thickness (t) of the airfoil in percentage of chord. For example, the blade chosen by previous designers was NACA0018 which has 0% camber and 18% thickness of chord which conveys that the blade is symmetrical. Furthermore, the exact coordinates as shown in the figure 12 can be extracted by the formulas shown below (Cantwell, 2013),

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The mean line of the camber can be computed by: for (0 x p), = (2 2 ) 2 (5)

for (p x c), c stands for chord length = [(1 2) + 2 2 ] (1 2 ) (6)

The thickness can be computed by the equation shown below for the distribution above the positive axis and below the negative axis for each of the x coordinate, 1 = 0.297 0.126 0.35162 + 0.284 3 0.2 0.1015
4

(7)

The upper surface and lower surface of the airfoil can be computed by the equations shown below, = 1 = + 1 (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)

= + 1 = 1

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Blade Failure: As mentioned earlier, blades are the most important part of the wind turbine which cause the wind turbine to rotate, thus, its care is also of vital importance. A few types of failure modes associated with the blades of the wind turbine are mentioned below, Adhesive Joints: This type of failure occurs when the energy release rate equals the fracture energy of the adhesive or in simple words, is a joint failure (Tong, 2010, 448). The crack may initiate due to sunlight, interface fracture and physical stresses. Sandwich Failure: Wrinkle occurs during the manufacturing of the wind turbine blades and when it is subjected to loading, it initiates a crack which results in failure. Gelcoat/Skin Delamination: Occurs at the skin of the blade and is also considered as interface cracking. It can change the change the aerodynamics properties of the blade drastically.

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Blade Angle of Attack: The output mechanical power of a wind turbine depends on the angle of attack of the blades and the most optimum angle of attack of a wind turbine can be best found by testing it at different angles and recording the power output. The angle of attack can also be used to fix the maximum rotational speed to a certain limit. where P is the atmospheric

pressure, R is the turbine Radius, Va is the induced velocity, Vc is the chordal velocity component, Vn is the normal velocity component, V is the wind velocity, is the blade angle of attack, is the azimuth angle and is the angular velocity of turbine (Islam, David and Fartaj, 2008). The lift and drag effect on the blades due to the wind flow and the angle of attack can be seen in the figure 14.
Figure 13: Flow Velocities of Straight-Bladed Darrieus-Type VAWT (Islam, David and Fartaj, 2008, 1096)

Jain (2011, 54) stated that the relationship between the lift coefficient and the angle of attack is linear and the maximum lift coefficient with respect to the angle of attack may lie between -15 to 150. Also, if this range is exceeded, the linear relationship may not exist.
Figure 14: Relationship between Lift and Drag Forces with respect to the Angle of Attack (Jain, 2011)

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Moreover, the relation of the lift coefficient and angle of attack can be visualised by figure 15.

Figure 15: Lift Coefficient with respect to the Angle of Attack for a Symmetric Airfoil (Jain, 2011)

2.2.3 Wind Turbine Design Parameters Power Control: Power control is currently being applied in many modern wind turbines to provide overspeed shield. Stall control is installed in conjunction with a generator which electrically controls the rotational speed of the wind turbine. Pitch control requires a control system to vary the orientation of the blades which is used mostly with complex models and it not only optimizes the wind turbine by regulating the blades but also acts as a security system in case of emergency or heavy wind speeds. Swept Area: Swept area is the section of air that the turbine can capture during rotation and it depends on the rotor axis orientation. It is the area of the wind turbine that resists the air passing by the turbine and causes the blades to rotate. For a HAWT, the swept area is circular shaped whereas for a VAWT, it is rectangular shaped and is given by, [21]

where S is the swept area, R is the rotor radius, D is the rotor diameter and L is the length of the blades. A typical example of swept areas (highlighted regions) of different wind turbine is shown below.

= 2 =

(13)

Figure 16: Swept Area of different styles of Wind Turbines (Doerner, 1997)

Tip Speed Ratio: The ratio of the rotational speed of the tip of the blade and the wind flow speed is known as tip speed ratio, a non-dimensional term and is written as, = = = (14)

where is the angular speed of the tip of the blade, R is the radius of the rotor and v is the wind speed. The power coefficient of a wind turbine is strongly dependant on the tip speed ratio. If angular speed of the tip of the blade is too low, most of the wind passes by the blades undistributed and on the contrary, if the angular speed is high, the fast rotating blades may act like a barrier and block the wind flow. In between these regions, there lies an optimal tip speed ratio where maximum power extraction is achieved. Tong (2010, 24) provided the relation between the approximate optimal angular speed for a wind turbine with n number of blades, 2 + 4 3 (15)

[22]

where L is the length of the blade and l is the strongly disturbed air stream upwind and downwind of the rotor. Moreover, Tong (2010, 24) estimates the optimal tip speed ratio for a wind turbine with three blades to be in the range of 5.24 5.25. Solidity: Solidity of a wind turbine depends on the number of blades, chord and rotor radius. The ratio between the entire blade area and the projected turbine area is known as solidity, a non-dimensional parameter. Solidity is responsible for the self-start-up of a wind turbine and it can be estimated through, = 2 (16)

where N is the number of rotor blades, c is the chord length of the blade, R is the wind turbine radius. Due to different swept area, this formula cannot be applied to HAWT. Tong (2010) approximated the solidity of a VAWT i.e. 0.4 in order to accomplish a self-starting wind turbine. Power Coefficient: Capturing most of the wind power is what the efficiency of a wind turbine is tested on and that is what the power coefficient defines. It is a non-dimensional parameter which is defined as the ratio between the extracted wind power and the total wind power available. The maximum power an ideal wind turbine can extract from the available power was postulated by Albert Betz in 1919 to be 59.3% and is now known as Betz limit (Jain, 2011). The total available wind power was derived in section 2.2.1 and thus, the power coefficient can be shown as, = 2 = 3 (17)

[23]

2.3 Design Analysis of Brake components

In order to achieve the objectives of the project, the construction had to be done which required designing, manufacturing of parts and assembling them together. The mechanical concept behind brake designing is briefly mentioned below. 2.3.1 Types of loading Loading types are introduced in the following section relevant to the project. Axial Loading: Axial loading could further be of two types i.e. Tensile or compressed. When a load P is applied on a component as shown in figure 17, the component is said to be in tension whereas the direction of load is reversed, compression would dominate (Juvinall, 2000).

Figure 17: Axial Loading on a bar and the resulting Axial Stress on an Element of the bar (Juvinall, 2000)

The resulting stress due to the axial loading is given as, where A is the cross-sectional area of the component. = (18)

[24]

Direct Shear Loading: Shear loading occurs in a component when it is connected between two colinear materials experiencing equal and opposite loads. Failure occurs due to shear, if the shear stress is greater than the strength of the component (Juvinall, 2000). Shear stress is given as,

Figure 18: Direct Shear Loading (Juvinall, 2000)

(19) where A is the cross-sectional area of the component experiencing shear load. =

2.4 Balancing of Rotating Machines

Whirling of rotating machines is a phenomenon that occurs at certain rotational speeds due to the imbalance mass present in the rotating shaft, as a result, the shaft starts wobbling which causes damage to the bearings and other components of the machine or in some cases, can also lead to huge disaster and can prove to be fatal for the bystanders. A 60 MW steam turbine unit at Uskmouth power station is shown as an example in the figure below (Entwistle, 2012).

[25]

Figure 19: 60 MW Steam Turbine: not under operation (Entwistle, 2012)

Figure 20: 60 MW Steam Turbine: after failure (Entwistle, 2012)

The whirling effect occurs only at certain rotational speeds due to the unbalanced mass present in the rotating shaft. These operating speeds (also known as critical speeds) when match the natural frequency of the machine causes resonance. At resonance, the forces involved with the rotation get amplified and thus, causes disaster. A rotating machine in most cases has to pass the resonance point and so, in order to reduce the effects of resonance the unbalance mass present in the shaft must be balanced. A few different sorts of unbalance are mentioned in the following sections, [26]

2.4.1 Static Unbalance Static unbalance is said to be occurred when the central axis of a rotating shaft is not aligned with the centre of rotation. If the shaft is disturbed and left to rotate freely, the shaft would stop rotating with the unbalance mass pointed downwards due to gravitational force. The statically unbalanced shaft can be balanced by simply adding another mass equal to the unbalance mass on the opposite side of the shaft or by adding two masses which together are equal to the unbalance mass on two arbitrary distances equally spaced from the unbalance mass (McMillan, 2004).

Figure 21: Static Balancing of an unbalanced Rotating Shaft (McMillan, 2004)

2.4.2 Couple Unbalance Couple unbalance occurs when a shaft is statically balanced but the balance mass is not placed in the same plane as the unbalance mass and thus, whirling effects are seen. In order to balance, the shaft must be rotated and the whirl must be observed for the unbalance masses. The location of the masses cannot be identified as mentioned in the previous section because the shaft is statically balanced. In order to overcome the effects, balance masses must be attached on the opposite side of the shaft and must be in plane with the unbalance mass (McMillan, 2004).

Figure 22: Couple Unbalance (McMillan, 2004)

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2.4.3 Quasi-Static Unbalance Quasi-static unbalance occurs when the central axis of the shaft overlaps the centre of rotation of the shaft. Similar to couple unbalance, the shaft must be rotated in order to correct the imbalance. In quasi-static unbalance, usually, the peaks of the whirl are where the unbalance masses are located and are 1800 out of phase. Balance Masses equal to the unbalance mass must be attached to the opposite side of the shaft to balance the shaft (McMillan, 2004).

Figure 23: Quasi-static Unbalance (McMillan, 2004)

2.4.4 Dynamic Unbalance Dynamic unbalance occurs when the central axis of the shaft does not overlap with the centre of rotation of the shaft. In this case, the phase angles of the unbalance masses are out of phase and location may not be exactly opposite. This kind of unbalance requires numerous tests of the shaft and calculations to find the balance mass correct location in order to balance the shaft.

Figure 24: Dynamic Unbalance (McMillan, 2004)

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2.5 Wind Turbine Classification

Wind turbines can be classified based on the rotor axis of rotation i.e. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). Both of them are then further classified due to different aerodynamics properties. 2.5.1 HAWT vs. VAWT This classification is simply made based on the rotor axis of orientation and both types of wind turbine have their own benefits. Most of the modern wind turbines are horizontal-axis type. The name horizontal-axis is given to these type of wind turbines is because rotatory motion of the blades is parallel to the wind flow. Similarly, in the case of vertical-axis, the rotatory motion is perpendicular to the wind flow. Factors Yaw control Low cut-in wind speeds Closer to ground High efficiency Wind tower support Easy maintenance Site: easy to find External source required during initialization HAWT VAWT

Table 4: Advantages and Drawbacks of different types of Wind Turbine

As VAWT can accept wind from any direction, thus, no yaw control is needed to orientate it towards wind like HAWT. HAWT design is usually made high from the ground as the wind speed increases from the ground level and up and thus, requires a tower to support the wind turbine whereas VAWT is kept to close to ground and thus requires no tower support. Likewise, the maintenance of VAWT is easier with generator, gear box system and other turbine components being closer to ground whereas in HAWT, all the components are installed in nacelle. However, the wind

[29]

flow in heights is more than close to the ground and that is where HAWT dominates VAWT because of good airspeed and high energy production. As the project is based on VAWT, further classifications of HAWT would not be introduced in the following. 2.5.2 Lift vs. Drag Savonius wind turbine or drag-type wind turbine is based on the drag force that is produced on the blades of the wind turbine due to wind flow. The name Savonius is given to this type of wind turbine because it was first brought forth by Savonius in 1922. The design had a two halves of a cylinder joined together and mounted on the rotor of the wind turbine. Drag type wind turbine captures small amount of energy from the wind and the tip speed ratio of these kind of wind turbine is always lower than 1 as the air speed always remain higher than the rotational speed of the tip of the blade (Paraschivoiu, 2002). Darrieus wind turbine or lift-type wind turbine is based on the lift forces produced on the blades. The name Darrieus is given to this type of wind turbine because it was brought forth by George Darrieus in 1925. The design had curved blades which worked on the principles of lift which Darrieus was unaware of. In 1973, the designs were discovered to take power from the wind rather than the direction. The tip speed ratio of this kind of wind turbine is always higher than 1 as tip speed of the blades is usually higher than the airspeed (Paraschivoiu, 2002).

[30]

3.0 PREVIOUS CONSTRUCTION

As this report is based on the designs brought forward by the designers in year 2011 and 2012, the work that is done must be understood in order to step ahead. The following sections will go through the drawings, construction and modification of the original design of the wind turbine and components.

3.1 Straight Bladed VAWT

The project was introduced in 2011 and it was planned to design and manufacture a helical bladed VAWT with the ability to accommodate three to six blades and with a rotor diameter of 2 m. In order to make it modular, an adjustable height of 1.5 m to 3 m of the rotor was decided to design. This wind turbine was deemed to perform as lift type vertical axis wind turbine. Due to manufacture complexities, time constraints and costs associated with the original plan of the design, few modifications were made to complete the objective of the project as soon as possible. The most important change that was decided to make was the blade type. Instead of a helical blade, a straight blade was designed which was because of the technician availability and the time involved in making the blades. Other minor modifications were made so as to make the wind turbine modular. The decision to make it modular was taken to transport it easily to a site for testing purposes. The designs were made of the components of the wind turbine which included the blade to be used and it was decided to use NACA0018 blade profile. It was manufactured in-house. Due to many issues such as complex shape and different materials used, the construction of it proved to be very time consuming and was the only component of the wind turbine that was manufactured, however, progress was made in the designing section of the wind turbine and the blade holding device, base, shaft, etc. of the wind turbine was designed with the use of AutoCAD. The issues involved with the construction of the blades were mostly associated with the acrylic fins which had holes and were prone to cracking when the screws were tightened. Bowing effect was seen in the skins of the blade which was due to too many screws

[31]

were used to hold it into place. It was later thought of using 2 mm pop-rivets to be installed at a distance of 50 mm intervals of the sheet metal.

Figure 25: Exploded view of Turbine Blade (Page, 2011)

Figure 26: Main Shaft Flange (Page, 2011)

Figure 27: Base of the Wind Turbine (Page, 2011)

[32]

3.2 Construction of the VAWT

In 2012, the objective of the project was to complete the construction and test the performance of the wind turbine. The previous designs that were put forward were assessed and it was found that the drawings are incomplete and the locations of the holes were out of place. The upper shaft previously had two sections which could be removed. The lower shaft of the wind turbine was a Circular Hollow Section (CHS) and due to the manufacturing methods, was not perfectly round. It was decided to use three bearings radial roller bearing in the upper bearing housing and radial and thrust bearing in the lower bearing housing. The designs provided by the previous designers were used to create a 3D model on SolidWorks which helped in visualising the exact locations of the holes and the drawings were completed. Only one section was decided to be used as it reduces the overall weight and also the effect of forces on the shaft. The lower shaft was machined in order to fit in the bearings and also to remove any imbalances that may be present in the shaft. The cost involved with using three bearings was too high and thus, it was thought of using two bearings instead of three i.e. Radial roller bearing in the upper housing and tapered roller bearing in the lower bearing housing. Two more blades were constructed with the same materials that were used previously and the 3D model created of the wind turbine with SolidWorks was transformed into a 2D drawing of different component and was submitted for construction. The supports, base and flanges were created by this method except for the bearing housing which was decided to be manufactured to prevent lifting and to keep the dirt away from entering the bearings. As the objective of the project was to complete the construction and test the performance of the wind turbine, a braking system was required in order to stop the wind turbine during emergencies and if the wind turbine needed to be stopped and devices were required to measure different parameters. The 3D models of the braking system and performance brakes were created using SolidWorks but the construction

[33]

of them could not be done due to time constraints and the availability of the workshop technician.

Figure 28: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine following the completion of construction in 2012 (Conway, 2012)

Figure 29: Emergency Brakes 3D model connected to the Rotating Shaft (Conway, 2012)

[34]

Figure 30: Performance Brakes (Conway, 2012)

[35]

[36]

4.0 EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEM

After a thorough analysis of the 3D model created by the previous designers, it was seen that the designs were incomplete. The model created by the previous designers was very helpful in finding the exact location of the holes to be drilled and the placement of other components. However, the model did not have a complete drawing of the brake emergency system but was proposing an idea of how the assembly should appear as can be seen figure 29 without showing the connections between components. A few components shown were used such as the lever, brackets and pivot shown in the 3D model. Similarly, the 3D model of the performance brake was incomplete and is shown in figure 30. It can be seen that the drawing does not show the connections of different components i.e. frictional material and the newton balances. The length of the newton balances was unknown as it was not purchased or sourced previously. It was first thought of using the same design of the braking system that was provided by the previous designers by using a friction belt and belt clamps to hold it in position and provide friction through the shaft but then the designs were changed. Changes were made to the design due to several reasons. The main reason was the usage of a friction belt with the forces involved was just not feasible. It was decided to use slices of rubber by sticking it to a backing plate which makes them easier to change if worn. It was not clear if the pivot drawing shown was using a bolt or a nut to hold the lever and the threads were not shown in the drawings. Lever only had one hole to connect it to the pivot but the connection with the spring and the friction belt was not shown. With the purpose of completing the designs, other components were purchased that included steel wires, grips, springs, hinges, rubber belt, bolts, nuts, newton balances as it would cost more to manufacture them in the workshop and would be time consuming due to the complex shapes of some of the components. The spring that was selected to be purchased by the previous designers was picked from the Century Springs catalogue and was based on the assumption that the [37]

maximum rotational speed of the wind turbine would be 300 rpm and the rotation stopping time would be 8 seconds. According to the tests conducted, it was observed that the performance brake friction belt was resisting the wind turbine from rotation and thus, the maximum rotational speed assumption was changed from 300 rpm to 200 rpm and the stopping time assumption was changed from 8 seconds to 15 seconds. Based on these assumptions, a new spring was purchased. As there was no mention of the support of the brakes when deactivated, suspension system was designed. The purpose of it was to suspend the brakes when dis-engaged by lifting it off the rotating shaft and allowing it to rotate without restrictions.

[38]

5.0 CONSTRUCTION
The construction was commenced when the designs of all the components to be manufactured in the workshop were completed. The corrected designs put forward in previous year of the components were submitted and a connector was designed. The designs, purpose and issues of each of the component will be discussed in the following section and the final designs created are provided in the APPENDIX - L.

5.1 Connector
The connector was used to make the network easy by transferring the load from four steel wires to one steel wire which was then connected to the lever. The purpose of doing this was to have some clearance between the loops and distribute the load evenly. Due to lack of knowledge of SolidWorks, the parts could not be made as 3D model. Nevertheless, the designs were created in AutoCAD and submitted.

Figure 31: Connector

[39]

5.2 Bracket
Brackets were used at six different end locations i.e. braking system, performance brake and suspension system. It was used to connect all of the systems with the wind turbine previously manufactured structure. The design had a horizontal plate with a vertical plate on top welded at 600. A total of six brackets were made with three reversed to the other by 900 to fit on the base support of the wind turbine properly as shown in figure below.

Figure 32: Bracket

[40]

5.3 Backing Plate

The backing plates were the parts on which the rubber slices were stuck and bolted. A total of 5 plates were made out of which two had slightly different dimensions. Those two were the ends backing plate connected to the steel wires approaching from the connectors and also had holes drilled for the suspension system. Those steel wires were looped to the brackets on the other end. The other three backing plates were quite simple and with the sole purpose of supporting the brake pads as shown in figure 33.

Figure 33: Backing Plates

[41]

5.4 Hinges
Hinges were originally designed to be manufactured in the workshop as the required dimension needed could not be found in any catalogues. Attainment of custom made hinges was an option but was not local and thus, costly. As a last resort, Bunnings Warehouse was searched and fortunately, hinges with exact dimensions as required were found and purchased shown in figure 34. The purpose of it was to allow the rubber pad backing plate connection to be flexible enough to create a large surface contact area with the rotating shaft when the brake is activated and to allow slight rotation to create a clearance between the rotating shaft and rubber pad when disengaged.

Figure 34: Hinge connection of the Backing Plate

[42]

5.5 Pivot
The designs provided by the previous designers created confusion because of the nut that was shown in the drawing and no threads were created for it. It was first thought that the pivots top circular section was hollow with internal threads and the lever was connected to it by a bolt but later it was thought that the bolt would not be able to endure the forces. The circular hollow section was changed to solid circular bar with external threads for the nut to be fastened. The purpose of it was to allow the lever to rotate about the pivot.

Figure 35: Pivot with the lever connected

[43]

5.6 Springs
Springs were used to keep the rubber pads in contact with the shaft. They were selected by previous designers and were based on the assumption that the maximum rotational speed of the wind turbine would be 300 rpm and the time required to stop the rotation of the wind turbine would be 8 seconds. A spring was purchased based on these assumptions and on delivery, it was found that the spring is very stiff and it was hard to manually disengage the brake once the assembly was done. Based on this factor and upon conducting tests, it was noted that the friction created by the performance brake belt was higher than thought and it was resisting the wind turbine from rotation. Thus, the assumptions made previously were changed to 200 rpm maximum rotational speed of the wind turbine and 15 second required to stop the wind turbine and a new spring was purchased based on these assumptions which was still stiff enough to hold the brakes in contact with the shaft but flexible enough to manually deactivate it. Springs specifications are provided in the CD attached to this report for viewing.

Figure 36: New Spring Purchased Assembled & Old Spring on the Right

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In addition, upon disengaging the brakes when the old spring was assembled, it was feared that the pivot may snap or the lever may bend due to the force that had to be applied to extend the spring.

5.7 Lever
Lever was a Square Hollow Shaft (SHS) used to extend the spring and deactivate the brake. It was modelled by the previous designers but the connection of it with the spring and the friction belt was not shown. The spring had a semi loop which was connected to the lever as shown to the in figure 36 and then it was connected to the brake pads on the other side with the help of steel wires as shown in figure 37.

Figure 37: Lever connection: Spring - Steel Wires

[45]

5.8 Friction Belt/Rubber Pads

Neoprene was chosen as the friction material to be used as brakes and in the performance brakes. As mentioned earlier, it was decided to use belt but due to the forces involved, the designs were modified and slices of rubber were used for easy maintain. In order to increase the thickness of the braking pads, three slices were glued on the backing plate as shown in the figure 38. It was purchased in the form of a sheet of rubber and was later cut to the required size to stick on the backing plate. But that was the case with emergency brakes; neoprene belt was still used with the performance brake to measure torque.

Figure 38: Three layers of Rubber Slices stuck on the Backing Plate

[46]

5.9 Other Components

Grips were used to close the loops. Ferrules were decided to be used at first but they required machines to tighten the loops which were no available in the workshop. Grips can be seen in figure 31 showing five steel wires loop connection with the connector. The grips can take a limited amount of force and for that reason, four grips were used in the loops which experience high loads and two were used with the suspension system loop because they are used just to lift the brakes when deactivated and do not experience an force.

Figure 39: Ferrules (Talurit, 2013)

Component Adhesive Steel Wires Newton Balances Wooden Blocks

Purpose To glue rubber on steel and rubber on rubber To transfer loads and connect different parts For torque measurement To even the ground and prevent elevation
Table 5: Minor Components

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[48]

6.0 PERFORMANCE BRAKE

Performance brake was designed to measure the torque of the wind turbine. It included a friction belt which was connected to two newton-spring balances on both ends. It created a difference in force when the shaft was rotating due to the slip occurred between the friction belt. In the beginning, it was thought of using eyelets to hold the friction belt with the help of newton balance but then it was decided to use steel plates bolted on the ends of the belt to provide enough strength so that the neoprene belt does not shear as shown in figure

Figure 40: Friction Belt and Newton Balance Connection

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[50]

7.0 TESTS CONDUCTED

The objective of this project was to test the performance of the wind turbine after understanding and assessing the designs put forward by the previous designers and manufacturing the emergency brakes. The emergency were manufactured and assembled. The next phase was to test the wind turbine by selecting the instruments necessary to measure the different factors. The testing of the wind turbine could not be completed due to safety and testing location. The safety concern was involved with the spring that was used based on the previous designers assumption that the maximum rotational speed would be 300 rpm and the stopping time of the rotation would be 8 seconds. The spring that was purchased was too stiff and it was feared that the force required to extend the spring is too high and it may break the pivot or bend the lever and hence, the braking system may malfunction. Also, it was noticed that when the wind turbine was allowed to rotate freely the friction due to performance brake belt was high enough to limit the maximum rotational speed to 200 rpm and the stopping time was assumed to be 15 seconds. Based on the new assumptions another spring was purchased and a testing plan, refer to the CD attached to this report, was written which pointed out the testing location selected to test, the testing procedure, the safety constraints and the type of testing to be done. Although the testing plan was written and approval was obtained to test, safety was a major concern because the spring was still stiff and could cause damage to personnel, property or the wind turbine itself, if any malfunction occurs. The other major issue was finding a site to test the wind. It was planned to conduct the performance test of the wind turbine on campus but due to Curtin Universitys bureaucracy, a permit to conduct the test could not be obtained on campus, although the approval was obtained by the City of Victoria Park Council provided in the CD attached to this report. It was unknown who to get the approval from in campus. Even though permission was not obtained, few tests were conducted in the workshop where the wind turbine was being constructed. Run down test was one of the tests

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performed. The wind turbine was manually rotated as fast as possible and the number of revolutions was recorded for every 5 seconds. The damping factor of the bearing was calculated from the decay rate of the rotational speed of the wind turbine with respect to time shown in APPENDIX J and was found to be in the range 0.55 < q < 2.08. Start-up test was also performed on the wind turbine by the use of an industrial fan directed towards the wind turbine to calculate the wind speed required for the wind turbine initiate rotation. The test was not successful due to the wind was not passing by the whole wind turbine but was only acting on one or two blades at a time even though the wind flow speed was about 20m/s measured by the anemometer and the angle of attack was kept at 100.

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8.0 DISCUSSION
The objective of the project was to test the wind turbine after understanding and assessing the designs and models provided by the designers in 2012. A minor setback occurred after going through the designs which required re-designing. The proposed model of the braking system was understood but it was found to be incomplete and many of the connections between components were missing. The first step toward achieving the target was taken by completing the design put forward and many of the components were purchased off the shelf and saved the time usually taken to manufacture and sourcing the raw materials whilst some were manufactured in the workshop. SolidWorks is a powerful tool that helps visualise the wind turbine virtually, however, AutoCAD was used to create all the designs because the author was not proficient in SolidWorks. The original design was thought of to be used but due to forces involved, it was predicted that the neoprene friction belt may shear. During the assembly, many corrections were made in the designs provided such as the pivot which had no threads and had a bolt or nut which should not be shown in the design, lever was another component which had no connections with the spring and the friction belt and it was known that the lever must be pulled to deactivate the brake but safety was not taken into consideration. The required changes were made to fix the designs and were submitted as soon as possible to be manufactured. The threads were made in the pivot designs and the type of welds and weld thickness was notified in the drawing. Similarly, wedges with holes were welded on the two sides of the lever to connect to the other parts of the braking system and another wedge was welded for the rope to be used to pull the lever from a safe distance. Once the assembly was finished, the next stage was to test the wind turbine which faced several problems. The major problem was finding a testing location to test. Locations outside of Curtin University campus were considered but did not fulfil the requirements i.e. Wind speed, electrical sockets required for measurement devices, nuisance to surrounding residents etc. It required an open site with good airspeed and electrical sockets. The security compound in Curtin University campus fulfilled all the requirements to test the wind turbine in that location. It had a good flow of air [53]

with electrical sockets if required and the wind turbine was not creating any noise during operation. Unfortunately, due to Curtin Universitys bureaucracy, it was not known who should be conversed with in order to get approval for testing. The spring that was purchased was based on the previous designers assumption i.e. 300 rpm maximum rotational speed and 8 seconds rotation stopping time and it was found to be very stiff and it was feared that the pivot may shear or the lever may bend. Also, it was believed that the performance brake installed to measure torque of the wind turbine will affect the rotational speed of the wind turbine and also, it was seen that the steel used to manufacture the wind turbine in previous years was collecting dirt from the surroundings as it was in the workshop and was also getting rusty as can be seen in figures 41 and 42 and therefore, the assumptions made previously were changed and a new spring was purchased.

Figure 41: The Taper Bearing housing and Transparent Acrylic Top Plate (Conway, 2012)

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Figure 42: The Taper Bearing and Transparent Acrylic Top Plate with the Rust

Although a new spring was purchased, it was still stiff and so locking the position of the lever in order to deactivate the brake appeared to be another problem. Many solutions were considered, the first one being, tying the rope to a heavy cylinder which could be rolled to activate or deactivate the brakes or secondly, a pulley could be used to pull the rope. During heavy wind flow or high speed rotation, there may be a possibility of the wind turbine to tumble or malfunction. In order to support the wind turbine, sand bags of approximately 20 kg were agreed to put on the base of the wind turbine which would keep the wind turbine stable but as the performance testing stage was not reached, this was not required. Nevertheless, some tests were conducted despite the presence of many issues. Run down test was performed to estimate the damping coefficient of the bearings installed. It must be noted that the test was conducted when the performance brake was not installed on the wind turbine. The blades were rotated manually by pushing the blades for the first three tests and the last two tests were done with the help of a rope which was wrapped around the shaft and then pulled to rotate the shaft and then

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the data was number of revolutions were counted for every 5 seconds. As the wind turbine was rotated manually, the data recorded was not very precise. The damping coefficient was calculated to be within the range 0.55 < q < 2.08. As the wind turbine was rotating at a speed higher than 50 rpm, the data recorded may have some errors as mention in APPENDIX J but a few tests were seen accurate enough to reach to the results. It can also be said that the wind turbine is dynamically balanced as there was no wobbling observed at such high speed. Another test conducted was the start up test which was unsuccessful. An industrial fan was used to blow air through the wind speed but the wind was not flowing through the whole wind turbine but just through a section of the wind turbine and thus, was not acting at all of the three blades simultaneously even though the initial angle of attack was kept at 100. The solidity of the wind turbine was calculated to be 0.081 which is quite low when compared to the estimation given by Tong (2010) of 0.4. In addition, the blade profile was observed closely and it was seen that the shape of the blades is not exactly what was required i.e. NACA0018 as shown in figure 43. The blades had the NACA0018 profile just at the fins location but in the middle section, it appeared as if vacuum was being created.

[56]

Figure 43: Blade Profile

Due to time constraints, the photo captured could not be enhanced and the exact shape of the blade may not be possible to see in the above picture. Nevertheless, there is presence of irregularity as witnessed.

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[58]

9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
Although the performance test was not performed, recommendations are made for future researchers and the constraints experienced are shared. These suggestions must be seen as guidelines but are subject to change if any improvement could be made. Testing location was one of the major issues that is still not resolved. This should be considered as priority. The security compound on campus is a perfect location for testing with good air flow. The approval to test must be obtained as soon as possible so the testing could be commenced. The profile of the blades was not noticed until the construction of the emergency braking system was done and thus, due to time constraints, it was decided to use the ones that were already installed. Further research must be done in finding the perfect material that can be used to construct the blades. It may be possible to increase the stopping time of the rotating shaft and select a new spring for the emergency braking system which will make it easier to test with less safety considerations. Moreover, locking the lever in the position required to deactivate the brake may become easier. This decision requires engineering judgment and has a certain limit above which the brakes may not be operational and will allow the shaft to slip. The use of pulley is highly recommended when performing the tests to deactivate the brake and it will make it easier to pull the lever keeping in mind, that a clearance of 20m must be maintained at all times during testing. Painting of the turbine is required to protect the steel components from rusting and it is recommended to dis-assemble the wind turbine prior to paint.

[59]

 The following devices can be used to measure data; Anemometer to measure the wind speed and Revolution counter to measure the rotational speed. Power control mechanism is highly recommended to harness most of the wind power available and to increase the efficiency of wind turbine. One of the options could be the use of springs attached to the blades and to the shaft holding the blades which will allow the blades to rotate and adjust the best angle of attack. As the newton balances purchased are analogue and must be read during each test, it is recommended to mount cameras on the main shaft flange to record the data for each test and can be retrieved later. It is highly recommended that in order to obtain the solidity of 0.4 for a selfstarting wind turbine, few new sets of blades should be manufactured and tests should be carried out along with the theoretical calculations to match the required solidity of the wind turbine. Alternatively, the chord length of the current blades can be modified to satisfy the requirements.

[60]

10.0 SAFETY CONSIDERATION

Safety is a major concern and cannot be overlooked whether any project is big or small. A few safety guidelines are listed below: Sand bags must be used to support the base of the wind turbine from tumbling during heavy wind or high rotation of the wind turbine. Prior to commence testing, the emergency brakes must be tested for functionality by manually rotating the blades to the maximum speed possible (use of a rope wrapped on the shaft and pulled recommended). Fork lifts may be used to transport the wind turbine to the testing location and prior to transport, the wind turbine must be disassembled as it is heavy. Heavy components must be properly placed and locked on the forklifts so that it does not fall which may damage the wind turbine, property or personnel. It must be made sure that the emergency brake is activated before going towards the wind turbine. The blades must always be secured to the frame to disable rotation when not in operation. The testing procedure guidelines given in the testing plan (present in the CD) must be complied with.

[61]

[62]

11.0 CONCLUSIONS
The main objective of the project was to test the vertical axis wind turbine after assessing the designs put forward by the previous designers. It was first thought of utilizing the designs that were provided but after theoretical calculations it was deemed to modify them in order to make the braking system modular and more efficient. The models were created on AutoCAD software packages and after a few trial and corrections, final designs of different components were submitted to be manufactured and assembled. A few issues were faced whilst the assembly stage which was in regards to safety. The spring purchased had a really high spring rating and thus, manual disengaging the brake was becoming a major health and safety issue and the process was stopped until a solution was thought. Assumptions were given another look and were changed due to various reasons mentioned in earlier sections and based on them a new spring was bought and assembled to get rid of the issues so the testing could be commenced. The City of Victoria Park Council were paid a visit to obtain an approval for conducting the performance tests on campus and as Curtin University was not under their jurisdiction, they had no power over it. Nevertheless, approval was obtained from them provided the nuisance to be kept as low as possible to avoid any kind of disturbance to the surrounding residents. Although, the approval was obtained from the Council, the tests could not be performed as a written approval had yet to be obtained. Due to Curtin University bureaucracy, it was hard to know about the person responsible to provide an approval to access the testing location and thus, the testing was not complete. Recommendations were made based on the calculations and it was estimated that the vertical axis wind turbine would not self-start because the solidity value of it was too low. Modification techniques were suggested in order to bump up the solidity value and increase the efficiency. Overall, it can be said that the project work was satisfactory.

[63]

[64]

12.0 REFERENCES
Burek, Jasmina, Davor Vasligaj, Zdravko Muzek. 2007. "NATIONAL INVENTORY REPORT." Carvill, James. 1994. Mechanical engineer's data handbook, ButterworthHeinemann. Hk, M. and X. Tang. 2012. "Depletion of fossil fuels and anthropogenic climate changeA review." Energy Policy. Islam, M., David S., Ting K. and Amir Fartaj. 2008. "Aerodynamic models for Darrieus-type straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 12(4): 1087-1109. Jain, Pramod. 2011. Wind energy engineering, McGraw-Hill. Juvinall, R. C. and K. M. Marshek. 1991. Fundamentals of machine component design, John Wiley & Sons. Lo, V. and V. Potdar. 2010. State of the Art: Carbon Emission Accountability Modeling. Broadband, Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA), 2010 International Conference on, IEEE. McMillan, R. B. 2004. Rotating machinery: practical solutions to unbalance and misalignment, The Fairmont Press, Inc. Musgrove, Peter. 2010. Wind power, Cambridge University Press Cambridge. Nel, W. P. and C. J. Cooper. 2009. "Implications of fossil fuel constraints on economic growth and global warming." Energy Policy 37(1): 166-180. Nelson, V. C. 2009. Wind energy: renewable energy and the environment, CRC Press. Paraschivoiu, I. 2002. Wind turbine design: with emphasis on Darrieus concept, Presses inter Polytechnique. Righter, R. W. 1996. Wind energy in America: A history, University of Oklahoma Press. Spera, D. 2009. Wind Turbine Technology: Fundamental Concepts in Wind Turbine Engineering. ASME Press, ISBN. Tong, W. 2010. Wind power generation and wind turbine design, WIT press.

[65]

Wolff, A. R. 1900. The windmill as a prime mover, J. Wiley & sons. Zecca, A. and L. Chiari 2010. "Fossil-fuel constraints on global warming." Energy Policy 38(1): 1-3. Barashi, Ryan M. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) Construction and Testing. Perth: Curtin University. Page, Ahron. 2011. Design of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Perth: Curtin University. Scott, Damian. 2011. Design of a Modular Straight Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Perth: Curtin University. Conway, Shaun. 2012. Construction and Testing of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Perth: Curtin University. Furfaro, Carmelo. 2012. Design and Manufacture of a Straight Blade Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Perth: Curtin University. Global Carbon Emissions: CO2 Now. http://co2now.org/Current-CO2/CO2Now/global-carbon-emissions.html Australias Greenhouse Gas Emissions: carbonneutral. http://www.carbonneutral.com.au/climate-change/australian-emissions.html Enhanced Renewable Energy Target: Climate Change. http://www.climatechange.gov.au/reducing-carbon/renewableenergy/renewable-energy-target/enhanced-renewable-energy-target Rembrandt. 2012. World Energy Consumption: The Oil Drum. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8936 Perth Wind Statistics: WillyWeather. http://wind.willyweather.com.au/wa/perth/perth.html Rowlett, Ross. 2001. Beaufort Scales: UNC. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/beaufort.html Scott, Cameron. 2010. Eddy GT Wind Turbine is Sleek, Silent and Designed for the City: Inhabitat. http://inhabitat.com/eddy-gt-wind-turbine-is-sleek-silent-anddesigned-for-the-city/ Pauler. 2010. Illuminate Highways with Turbine Light: The modern Green. http://themoderngreen.com/tag/wind-turbine/ Cantwell, Brian J. 2013. The NACA airfoil series: Stanford. http://www.stanford.edu/~cantwell/AA200_Course_Material/The%20NACA %20airfoil%20series.pdf

[66]

Climate statistics for Australian locations: Bureau of Meteorology. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_009161.shtml Doerner. 1997. HAWT contra VAWT?: heiner-doerner-windenergie. http://www.heiner-doerner-windenergie.de/HAWT-VAWT.html Enwistle, Rodney. 2012. Dynamic Systems Lecture notes: BlackBoard. http://lms.curtin.edu.au Conical Aluminium Ferrules: Talurit. http://www.talurit.com/webbplats/products/conical_aluminium_ferrules_engli sh_63.asp High Strength Neoprene Rubber: Rubber Sheet Roll. http://www.rubbersheetroll.com/neoprene-rubber-high-strength.html

[67]

[68]

APPENDIX A FORMULAS USED

Available Power: 1 3 = 2 = 2 = 1 = 3 2 = = = (1 2 ) =

Swept Area:

Captured Power:

Torque:

Angular Acceleration:

Band Brake Force Ratio:

Spring Extension:

1 = 2 =

Shear Stress:

[69]

Drag Coefficient/Shape Factor: = = 2 2

Wind Pressure:

Wind Force:

1 = 2 2 = =

Mass:

Solidity: =

[70]

APPENDIX

MATERIAL

SUMMARY

AND

REQUIRED

ASSUMPTIONS
MATERIAL SUMMARY Steel Components: SU = 410 MPa Sy = 250 MPa E = 210 GPa s = 7800 kg/m3 Lever (Square Hollow Section): Length = 1 m Cross-sectional Area = Outer Solid Area Inner Hollow Section Cross-sectional Area = (25 x 25) (23 x 23) Cross-sectional Area = 96 mm2 Mass = lA = 0.75 kg

[71]

ASSUMPTIONS The required assumptions were made in order to simplify the calculations listed below. All the symbols and representations can be found in the nomenclature. Wind Characteristics: Wind Speed = 5 m/s Air Density = 1.225 kg/m3 Wind Turbine Characteristics: Tip Speed Ratio = 4.5 Blade Chord Length = 0.17 m Safety Factor = 4 Maximum Rotational Speed = 200 rpm = 20.94 rad/s Rotation Stopping Time = 15 seconds Rotor Power Coefficient = 0.593 (Betz Limit) Acceleration Due to Gravity = 9.81 m/s2 Total Moment of Inertia = 15.01 kgm2 (Furfaro, 2012) Brake Pads Characteristics: Contact Angle = 1200 = 2.09 rad Friction Coefficient = 0.4 (Neoprene on Steel) Maximum Pressure = 250 kPa

[72]

Spring Characteristics (Obtained from Boynes Springs in CD attached ) Spring Rating = 8.36 N/mm Free Length = 240 mm Maximum Suggested Load = 608 N Initial Tension = 190 N

[73]

APPENDIX C REVISED CALCULATIONS

All the relations shown in the further sections were obtained from Mechanical Engineers Data Handbook by James Carvill. Available Power: = 1 3 2

where A is the swept area of the wind turbine and is given by, = 2 = 2 1 1.5 = 32 = 1 1.225 3 53 2

Thus,

Maximum Theoretical Power can be calculated as follows, = 0.5 3

= 229.7

where CP is the power coefficient. Thus,

= 135.5 ( = 86.2 )

= 0.5 1.225 3 53 0.593

[74]

Torque can be calculated as shown below, =

where is the angular acceleration and is shown as, = 20.94 = = 1.396 2 15

The conversion of the angular maximum rotation speed from rpm to radians per second is shown below, = 200 2 = 20.94 60

Substituting the values in the torque equation,

The forces acting on the braking pads were found with the help of Microsoft Excel for different rotor rotational speeds sheet which may be found in the attached CD. = (1 2 )

= 15.01 1.396 = 20.95 ( = 58.9 )

where r is the radius of the rotating shaft. Rearrangement of the above equation yields, 1 2 = It is also known that for band brakes, 20.95 = 0.05053

1 2 = 414.6

1 = = 0.42.09 2 1 = 2.307 2 [75]

Or, 1 = 2.3072 2 = 317.2

Substituting and solving for F2,

Band Width can be calculated as shown below, it is known that for band brakes, 1 = = wind turbine is 58 mm. Spring Extension can be found as follows, 2 = = 731.75 1 = = 58 0.05053 250

1 = 731.75

Rearranging yields,

The minimum band width required to for friction application in order to stop the

= 38.24 ( = 10.2)

[76]

Manual Disengage Force of the brakes can be calculated as follow, = 345 (992.5 ) = 0 = 345 608 = 211.34 ( = 809.6) 992.5 = 608 + 211.34 = 0

Rearranging,

Reaction force at Pivot,

Shear force at the pivot can be calculated as follows, =

= 396.65 ( = 1394.4 ) 396.65 = 0.0052

This is well under constraint and thus, can be used successfully,

= 5.05

[77]

Weld Thickness Calculations of various components: Strength of the weld material = d = 350 MPa After considering Safety of Factor= d = 87.5 MPa Weld Areas of different components are shown below where 1 is a unit representative, Bracket Area, = (50 2) 1 = 100 2

Pivot (neck lever support),

Weld Thickness of different components are shown below,

= (2 5) 1 = 31.4 2

Maximum force on the brackets = F1 = 731.75 N Reaction force on pivot = FP = 396.65 N Minimum weld thickness required for components, Bracket minimum stress required for the weld to shear, = 731.75 = 100

Pivot neck minimum stress required for the weld shear, = Minimum weld thickness required, Bracket, = 7.32 1= 1 87.5 = 396.65 31.4

= 7.32

= 12.63

= 0.0836 [78]

Pivot (neck), = 12.63 1= 1 87.5 = 0.144

The previous weld thickness of bracket and pivot (neck) was 0.58 mm and 0.51 mm, respectively which has further dropped below.

[79]

Projection of the blade components of the wind turbine are calculated as follows, The time taken, t, for the point mass to reach ground can be obtained as shown below, = + 0.5 2

The blade is treated as a point mass at the maximum possible height of 2.47 m. Thus, 2.47 = 0 + (0.5 9.8 2 ) The horizontal distance covered in this time span can then be obtained using this time value. It must be noted that wind resistance was assumed negligible. = + 0.5 2 where u can be written in the form of r, = = 0.71

= 1 20.94 0.71 Hence, a clearance of 15-20 m must always be maintained during operation. = 14.87

[80]

APPENDIX D WELD CALCULATIONS

The weld thickness of other parts of the braking system was calculated in similar fashion as shown above. The parts analysed for the minimum weld thickness are listed below. Strength of the weld material = d = 350 MPa After considering Safety of Factor= d = 87.5 MPa Weld Areas of different components are shown below where 1 is a unit representative, Pivot (Base Wedge) Area, = (30 + 20) 2 1 = 100 2 = (5 + 5) 2 1 = 20 2

Lever Weld Area,

Weld Thickness of different components are shown below,

Maximum force on the Pivot Base wedge = FP/2 = 198.33 N Maximum force on Lever (Spring Side) = FL = 608 N Minimum weld thickness required for components, Pivot Base Wedge minimum stress required for the weld to shear, = 198.33 = 100

Lever (Spring Side) minimum stress required for the weld shear, = 608 = 20 [81]

= 1.98

= 30.4

Minimum weld thickness required, Pivot Base Wedge, = Pivot (neck), = 1.98 1= 1 87.5

= 0.023

This is well under design constraints as the minimum thickness required to meet the standards is 3 mm. Hence, weld thickness of 3 mm will be suitable for all welding joints.

= 0.347

30.4 1= 1 87.5

[82]

APPENDIX E LOAD ON BOLTS AND BOLT STRENGTH

The total force applied on the brake pads can be shown as, 1 + 2 = 1048.95

This force is equally shared by all the bolts due to the four steel wires placed in different locations of the brake backing plates to divide the total load by a factor of 4. If the force applied on the adhesive used to glue the rubber pad and the backing plate is neglected then it can the total force applied on the bolts can said to be approximately 1.05 kN. This force is equally shared by 24 bolts that are used to support the pads, the hinges and the backing plates in addition to the adhesive used. Thus it would be correct to say that the force experienced by one of the bolts is, = 1 + 2 1048.95 = 24 24

As the bolts used are of Grade 4.6, it can be said that the bolts can hold the force without shearing when compared with the maximum shear capacity seen in APPENDIX F.

= 43.7

[83]

APPENDIX F BOLT & WELD CAPACITIES

[84]

APPENDIX G SUPPORT CALCULATIONS TO PREVENT WIND TURBINE LIFTING

It has been assumed that the maximum wind speed in Curtin University campus could be 35 m/s. The pressure applied on the wind turbine due to the heavy wind speed or the lift caused due to high rotational speed can be calculated as, Drag Coefficient for flow past bodies of different shapes is given differently. In case of flow past a wind turbine, it was assumed that the wind turbine behaves as a drum and thus, the drag coefficient past a drum is shown as, 2 = = 2 2 = 1 = 0.33 3

Wind pressure can be written as,

= 0.5 1.225 0.33 352 The Drag force experienced by the wind turbine due to the wind pressure is calculated as, = = 247.6

= 0.5 2

The drum area would be the section which experiences the wind pressure; therefore, only half circumference of the drum would be used. = 2 = 2

= 4.71 2

[85]

Thus, the wind-drag force, = 247.6 4.71 As the base of the wind turbine is hexagonal, it is suggested to use six sand bags placed on each of the support in order to prevent the wind turbine from lifting or tumbling due to heavy wind speed. Sand Bag Weight, = Mass of the sand bags, 1166.8 = 6 6 = 1166.8

= 194.5

Therefore, six sand bags of mass approximately 20 kg must be used on the base of the wind turbine to prevent it from tumbling.

= 19.82

194.5 = 9.81

[86]

APPENDIX H STRENGHT vs. THE LOAD APPLIED ON COMPONENTS

This section analyses the previous design which was considered i.e. friction belt and clamps connected. The total stress due to force applied from the spring can be calculated as follows, Strength of Neoprene = 10.34 MPa (taken from rubber sheet roll) Total force on the Neoprene belt based on the assumption made by previous designers i.e. 300 rpm maximum rotational speed and 8 seconds rotation stopping time, 1 + 2 = 2062.8 + 896.87 = 2959.67 = 1 + 2 2959.67 = 6 140 = 3.52

Total shear force on the Neoprene belt with thickness of 6mm and height of 140mm,

Total force on the Neoprene belt based on the new assumptions i.e. 200 rpm maximum rotational speed and 15 seconds rotation stopping time, 1 + 2 = 731.75 + 317.2 = 1048.95

Total shear force on the Neoprene belt with thickness of 18mm and height of 140mm, = 1 + 2 1048.95 = 18 140 = 0.42

The drastic change of the stress is obvious but the benefits that cannot be known from the calculations above are that the load is experienced by the bolts mainly

[87]

according to the new design and assumptions and the new design was made modular and can be easily replaced or maintained. The maximum load (F1) experienced by the steel wire in the connection of the connector with the bracket which is 731.75 N and is well below the allowable load which can be seen in the Bullivants catalogue in the CD attached to this report.

[88]

APPENDIX I SOLIDITY OF THE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

Solidity of a wind turbine tells if the wind turbine is capable of self-starting or not and it is given as, = 3 0.17 = 2 2 1

As mentioned in previous sections, Tong (2010) mentioned that in order for a vertical axis wind turbine to be able to self-start, the solidity must be above 0.4 and in this case, solidity is well below that value. Recommendations have been made in previous sections in order to improve the wind turbine efficiency.

= 0.081

[89]

APPENDIX J DAMPING COEFFICIENT

The data collected from the tests conducted to estimate the damping coefficient of the wind turbine is shown in the table below for the first 50 seconds. The number of revolution was counted for every 5 seconds and was tabulated. Time (sec) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Test 1 (rpm) 36 36 36 24 24 24 24 12 12 24 Test 2 (rpm) 36 36 24 36 12 36 12 24 12 24 Test 3 (rpm) 36 24 24 24 24 12 24 12 12 12 Test 4 (rpm) 48 36 36 36 24 24 24 24 12 12 Test 5 (rpm) 96 60 48 48 36 36 24 36 24 24 Test 6 (rpm) 96 72 60 48 48 36 36 36 36 24

Table 6: Run Down Test Data

The data collected was of really rough nature as it can be seen. The rotational speed of the wind turbine is expected to be declining however from time interval 45 50 seconds, the speed shows an increase. Thus, it is said that the data is not very reliable and the calculations are done based on the data collected in test 4 and 6 as it shows a constant decline of rotational speed. It is known that, = = = 0

Thus,

[90]

And by rearranging, =

Also it can be shown that,

By substituting and rearranging,

= = = =
2 [] 1 =

By integrating,

Rearranging yields,

The above relation was used to calculate the damping coefficient for every 5 seconds with the help Microsoft Excel which is attached in the CD. The range in which the damping coefficient lies was found to be 0.55 < q < 2.08.

[]2 1 =

[91]

APPENDIX K SUPPORTING FILES

The following documents have been uploaded in a CD and attached to the report listed below. It may be helpful and support the facts provided in the body of the report and it is strongly recommended to refer to it. Thesis Cory Designs and 3D models created of components Photos Captured of the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Calculations Steel Wire Catalogue Fasteners, Fittings & Accessories Catalogue Specification of the spring bought Conversation with the suppliers Testing Approval of the City of Vitoria Park Council Approved Testing Plan Recorded Videos of tests conducted

[92]

APPENDIX L CAPTURED PHOTO OF THE WIND TURBINE FOLLOWED BY THE DESIGNS CREATED OF THE COMPONENTS

Figure 44: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Emergency and Performance Brakes

It must be noted that the following designs and 3D models are courtesy of Ryan M. Barashi.

[93]

TOP VIEW 5 27.5 27.5 6.5 30 30 10 10

37

6.5 42.5 140 FRONT VIEW 27.5 42.5

ALL DIMENSIONS IN MILLIMETERS DRAWN BY: B.Ryan DATE: 13 05 2013 CHECKED BY: M.Irfan APPROVED BY: Dr K.Andrew

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END BACKING PLATES

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BRACKETS
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CONNECTOR
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3mm Weld

27.5

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HINGE
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2x 3mm Welds on all sides Magnified Section of the Lever showing the dimensions of the welded parts
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10MM STANDARD THREAD 15 25 NOTE: STANDARD THREAD ACCORDING TO AVAILABLE NUTS OF 10MM DIAMETER 125 80 2x 3mm Stitch Weld on both sides
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EMERGENCY BRAKE ASSEMBLY

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