KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

JOURNAL PAPER REVIEW ON

FABRICATION AND ANALYSIS OF VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE ON

HIGHWAYS

Sarvesh Pandey [024293-18]

August 2020
 INTRODUCTION

Venkata Somi Reddy.J(Assistant Professor,Lakireddy Bali Reddy College of

Engineering, Mylavaram, India)’s Fabrication and Analysis of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine on
Highways is a distinguished Journal that elaborates the use of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine on
Highways for lighting bulb purpose. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines are the oldest form of wind
turbine that are used for electricity generation in many countries. According to the author,
Wind energy is the most prominent and effective means of energy for electric yielding. He
also adds that the wind produced from vehicles hits the wings of turbine and makes them turn
and converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy. The concept of Vertical Axis Wind
Turbine on Highways is very pivotal for energy production and is widely used in many
countries as a means of electricity.

Wind Energy is a renewable source of energy and it can be used without any humiliation
to the environment. The writer also manifests that the VAWT is structured and created so that
it can readily catch wind from all the heading. According to the author, the work and the
results obtained are very encourage-able and potentially contribute to the production of the
clean renewable electricity from the wind even under low ideal sitting conditions. With the
idea on highway, it will power up street lights. In most cities where the highways are always
busy with vehicles , VAWT can contribute a lot to generate electricity for bulb lighting
purpose or something else applications. The author only talks about lighting up bulbs on
highways through Vertical Axis Wind Turbine but it may be possible to obtain electricity to
light home as well. Thus, Vertical Axis Wind Turbine(VAWT) are the most prominent means
for producing electricity not only for lighting street bulbs but also to run micro industries in
many countries.

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 SUMMARY

A Vertical Axis Wind Turbine was fabricated for lighting street bulbs on highways. The
author has designed all the components like pulley, blades, hub, stand etc with the help of
CATIA v5 and later on analysis was done in ANSYS 18.0. The primary objective of author
was to catch the wind brought by vehicles on highway and use it in effective way for lighting
bulb on highways. The various components were designed according to the measurement
specified. The blades were designed with a diameter of 78 cm and height of 7.62 cm. The
author has also used supporting shaft of pole width 1 inch and thickness 2 mm. In the same
way a supporting mild steel plate of thickness 2 mm was used between shaft and pulley. The
stand was made up of MS material and designed in square shape in order to support the
whole body of the turbine.Two pulleys of diameter 78 cm and 2.5 cm were attached to shaft
and dynamo respectively. The bigger pulley was made up of MS for free rotation due to light
weight. Both the pulleys were attached with the help of belt. The calculations were made to
calculate the output power and the wind speed were taken in the range of 4 m/s to 10 m/s.
The blower and speed regulators were used and voltmeter and ammeter were connected to
record the voltage generated during the process.

According to the author, the project was carried out with an aim of lighting bulbs on
highways with the assistance of vehicles running on the highways. After the complete
fabrication , testing was done where different power were extracted with varying wind speed.
The running frequency of turbine was in the range of 0 to 400 rpm and the maximum
frequency was 6.6 Hz. On the other hand, the frequency obtained from ANSYS modal
analysis was 29.5 Hz and therefore the model was declared vibration free and safe. Also the
output power developed from turbine was 9.7 watt for wind speed of 7.5 m/s and he added
that the efficiency could be increased by changing shape and size of blades. Furthermore, the
result obtained was very encouraging according to him.

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 CRITIQUE

Venkata Somi Reddy .J, the author of the journal Fabrication and Analysis of Vertical
Axis Wind Turbine on Highways proclaims that the journal is subjectively written. Though
the journal is assumed to be well written, there seems to be contrary. The author writing style
doesn’t make his argument clear. It creates confusion among the readers. For instance, the
author calculated the power output by taking the wind speed in the range of 4 m/s to 10 m/s
but he didn’t go for very low speed or very high wind speed. What would be the
consequences of operating it with high wind speed or low speed wind? Would it still produce
electricity or there would be failure with the blades? Also, during the designing of the model
the author thought that wind would hit all the 8 blades of the VAWT but while conducting
the experiment , this was not the case. Thus, there was seen a lot of deviation between the
experimental and theoretical results. Furthermore, all the keywords present in the journal are
not well defined by the author. On the other hand, the author didn’t completely elaborate
about the mesh analysis in ANSYS V18. He didn’t mention about pressure control and stress
distribution analysis though it is very crucial part of the journal. In the same way, no
expertise has been shown by the author regarding complete fabrication of the turbine. He
didn’t mention about setting up generators, hubs, link rod and other components of turbine
and the article doesn’t support any evidence regarding the testing at very busy highways.

The graph between actual power and available power shows the variation between
theoretical and experimental values. There seems wide range of variation between them. The
main reason of such variation is the cross section of blades and the material used. The author
could have minimized this by changing the material for blade and interfering the cross section
of it.In addition, there was large difference between the running and natural frequencies and it
would avoid resonance but there is no such evidence supporting this argument. There is no
any evidences that supports any of the arguments in my points of view. I don’t find the
author’s source reliable because the sources don’t support any arguments perfectly.

Among all the aspects, the argument that I found much convincing was the reliability and
cost analysis of the wind turbine. Absolutely, the installation cost of VAWT is low and it
requires less space for installation and this is the main reason why VAWT is preferred more
than HAWT. Moreover, the least convincing argument that I found in the journal was that the
design is free from vibration and resonance.

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 CONCLUSION

The journal demonstrates well about Fabrication and Analysis of Vertical Axis Wind
Turbine but some arguments are not well clarified in the journal. In my points of view,
the reviewed journal doesn’t make much contribution to Turbine’s fabrication. Also,
the implication of the study has not been identified by the author. This journal has
contributed to some extent in the field of Wind Turbines and there seems huge
possibility of further research in future on the topic of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines.
Overall, I think the journal is ambiguous and could have been much better if the
arguments were well clarified by the author.