RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE FLOW FIELD OF A STATIONARY AIR FLOW DURING THE OPERATION OF A FOUR-BLADE BIDARRIEUS-1 TURBINE

There are a great variety of wind turbine constructions but by their principle of operation they are divided into three main types -sail (Savoniuswind power unit), propeller and airfoils (Darrieus wind turbine). At present, propeller-type wind-turbines are the most widely spread. They are produced on a commercial level in many countries. Other conditions being equal, the power produced by wind power unit (WPU) is proportional to the area being swept around by a wind wheel. Therefore, Megawatt propeller-type wind turbines have blades with the length of 40 and more meters. Only aircraft works with a highly-qualified personnel and corresponding equipment can produce such long blades of a specific shape. Of high interest have become airfoil wind turbines (Darrieus WPU) lately. They are of a simpler construction and have a quite high wind power utilization factor (ξ=0.45). In spite of the fact that this is a good index of WPU efficiency, the workers of al-Farabi Kazakh National University have developed a new version of a wind turbine which allows increasing 1.3-1.6 times the value of this coefficient. This apparatus is named a Bidarrieusunit. This paper presents the description of a Bidarrieusunit, the principle of its operation and the possibility of increasing the wind power utilization factor. Also, the results of testing an acting laboratory model in an aerodynamic tunnel