Project Research
The fundamental purpose of research was to gather technical documents and papers relevant to wind turbine technology, and the mathematics behind it.Newton's Third LawThe Bernoulli Effect |
Wind Turbine Blade DesignBlade design and engineering is one of the most complicated and important aspects of current wind turbine technology. Engineers strive to design blades that extract as much energy from the wind as possible in a variety of wind speeds, while remaining durable, quiet and affordable. This engineering process requires a great deal of scientific experimentation, modeling, and testing.
There are two important reasons why wind turbine blades are able to spin in the wind: Newton’s Third Law and the Bernoulli Effect.
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Quick Fact!The ratio between the speed of the blade tips and the speed of the wind is called tip speed ratio. High efficiency 3-blade-turbines have tip speed/wind speed ratios of 6 to 7. Modern wind turbines are designed to spin at varying speeds. Use of aluminum and composite materials in their blades has contributed to low rotational inertia, which means that newer wind turbines can accelerate quickly if the winds pick up, keeping the tip speed ratio more nearly constant. Operating closer to their optimal tip speed ratio during energetic gusts of wind allows wind turbines to improve energy capture from sudden gusts that are typical in urban settings.
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Wind turbine blades must be optimized to efficiently convert oncoming winds into mechanical energy to rotate the main drive shaft. But when designing turbine blades, the real wind is only one part of a larger equation—good blades must also account for the apparent wind that is experienced as the blade passes through the air.
Imagine riding your bike on a day with a fresh breeze at your side. As you begin to ride and pick up speed, you feel this wind from the side, but also wind pushing back at you from the direction you are moving. When you stop riding, there is just the wind from the side again. This wind that is “created” as you are moving is known as headwind. The headwind, combined with the real wind, is known as apparent wind. A wind turbine blade experiences apparent wind as it passes through the air. This apparent wind is from a different direction than the “real” wind that has caused the blade to begin moving. Since the tips of large turbine blades may be moving through the air at speeds up to 322 km/h (200 mph), this apparent wind can be very significant. |