Deflectable Blades Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract

Energy is a primary commodity of nature that transmits between parts of a system in the output of physical change within the system and usually considered as the capacity to do work. Energy sources could be abundant; however, conversion and utilization to a more effective output need to be discovered. There is a wide variety of existing vertical axis wind turbines, VAWT, but the efficiency is low compared to that of a horizontal axis wind turbine because of the presence of counter flow drag. In order to address this problem, a vertical axis wind turbine with deflectable blades that would minimize counter drag flow and maximize efficiency is designed and developed. The newly developed VAWT makes the blades deflect at a certain angle. The deflection of the blade eliminates the counter flow drag force that makes the efficiency of the vertical axis turbine increase. The results of the tests show that using the deflecting blades for vertical axis wind turbine is more efficient. The developed deflectable blade can be further improved by using lighter materials and a gear system can be considered for better speed ratio.