Wind Energy is Clean!

The stimulus for the development of wind

energy in 1973 was the price of oil and
concern over limited fossil-fuel resources.
Now, of course, the main driver for use of
wind turbines to generate electrical power is
the very low CO2 emissions and the potential
of wind energy to help limit climate change.
Wind Energy Handbook
Tony Burton
Wind Energy Consultant, Carno, UK
Upwind & Downwind
Lift-type Machines
 Upwind Machine
• Upwind machines have the rotor
facing the wind.
• By far the vast majority of wind
turbines have this design.
 Upwind Machine
• The basic advantage of upwind designs is that
one avoids the wind shade behind the tower.
• The basic drawback of upwind designs is that
the rotor needs to be made rather inflexible
and placed at some distance from the tower, as
some manufacturers have found out to their
cost.
• In addition an upwind machine needs a yaw
mechanism to keep the rotor facing the wind.
 Downwind Machine
• Downwind machines have the rotor
placed on the lee side of the tower.
• In figures, notice that the rotor is
"coning" away from the tower.
 Downwind Machine
• They have the theoretical
advantage that they may be
built without a yaw
mechanism, if the rotor and
nacelle have a suitable
design that makes the
nacelle follow the wind
“passively”.
 Downwind Machine
• A more important advantage is that the rotor
may be made more flexible. This is an
advantage both in regard to weight and the
structural dynamics of the machine,
i.e. the blades will bend at high wind
speeds, thus taking part of the load
off the tower. Thus, the basic
advantage of the downwind machine
is that it may be built somewhat
lighter than an upwind machine.
 Downwind Machine
• The basic drawback is the
fluctuation in the wind
power due to the rotor
passing through the wind
shade of the tower.
 Important Terms
• Cut in wind speed:
The wind speed that the turbine starts
producing power (may be different than the
speed at which the turbine starts spinning)
• Rated Wind Speed:
The wind speed at which the turbine is
producing “rated power” – though “rated
power” is defined by the manufacture
 Important Terms
• Cut out wind speed:
The wind speed at which the turbine stops
producing power
• Shut down wind speed:
The wind speed at which the turbine stops to
prevent damage
• Survival wind speed:
Wind speed that the turbine is designed to
withstand without falling over
WTG: Power Curve
WTG: Power Curve

Bergey 1500 as per manufacturer’s data Note 8 m/s and 14 m/s

 WTG: Energy Generation

Wind speed frequency graph WTG: Energy generation

Note 8 m/s and 14 m/s
Basic parts of Wind Turbine
Basic motions of Wind Turbine
Pitch

Rotation

Yaw
 Different Types of Wind Turbines

Utility-Scale Wind Power

600 - 5,000 kW

• Installed on wind
farms, 10 – 300 MW
• Professional
maintenance crews
• Classes 5 and 6 (> 6
m/s average)
 Different Types of Wind Turbines

Distributed Wind Power

300 - 600 kW

• Installed at individual homes,

farms, businesses, schools, etc.
• On the “customer side” of the
meter
• High reliability, low
maintenance
• Classes 2 and 3 (5 m/s average)
 Sizes and Applications

Small Intermediate Large

<=10 kW 10-250 kW 250 kW-2+MW
Homes Village Power Central Station
Farms Hybrid Wind
Remote Systems Farms
Applications Distributed Distributed
(e.g. water Power Power
pumping,
telecom
sites, icemaking)
 Wind Turbine Modeling Concepts

Stream-tube of moving air

Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• A wind turbine is a device for extracting

kinetic energy from the wind.
• By removing some of its kinetic energy the
wind must slow down but only that mass of
air which passes through the rotor disc is
affected.
Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• Assuming that the affected mass of air

remains separate from the air which does not
pass through the rotor disc and does not slow
down a boundary surface can be drawn
containing the affected air mass and this
boundary can be extended upstream as well
as downstream forming a long stream-tube of
circular cross section.
Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• No air flows across the boundary and so the

mass flow rate of the air flowing along the
stream-tube will be the same for all stream-
wise positions along the stream-tube.
Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• Because the air within the stream-tube slows

down, but does not become compressed, the
cross-sectional area of the stream-tube must
expand to accommodate the slower moving
air.
Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• The presence of the turbine causes the

approaching air, upstream, gradually to slow
down such that when the air arrives at the
rotor disc its velocity is already lower than the
free-stream wind speed. The stream-tube
expands as a result of the slowing down and,
because no work has yet been done on, or by,
the air its static pressure rises to absorb the
decrease in kinetic energy.
Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• As the air passes through the rotor disc, by

design, there is a drop in static pressure such
that, on leaving, the air is below the
atmospheric pressure level. The air then
proceeds downstream with reduced speed
and static pressure – this region of the flow is
called the wake.
Wind Turbine
Modeling Concepts

• Eventually, far downstream, the static

pressure in the wake must return to the
atmospheric level for equilibrium to be
achieved. The rise in static pressure is at the
expense of the kinetic energy and so causes a
further slowing down of the wind. Thus,
between the far upstream and far wake
conditions, no change in static pressure exists
but there is a reduction in kinetic energy.
Actuator Disc Concept

• The mechanism described above accounts for

the extraction of kinetic energy but in no way
explains what happens to that energy; it may
well be put to useful work but some may be
spilled back into the wind as turbulence and
eventually be dissipated as heat.
Actuator Disc Concept

• Nevertheless, we can begin an analysis of the

aerodynamic behaviour of wind turbines
without any specific turbine design just by
considering the energy extraction process.
The general device that carries out this task is
called an actuator disc.
Actuator Disc Concept
Actuator Disc Concept

• Upstream of the disc the stream-tube has a

cross-sectional area smaller than that of the
disc and an area larger than the disc
downstream. The expansion of the stream-
tube is because the mass flow rate must be
the same everywhere.
Actuator Disc Concept

• The mass of air which passes through a given

cross section of the stream-tube in a unit
length of time is ρAU

Where:
ρ = air density
A = cross-sectional area of disk
U = flow velocity
Actuator Disc Concept

• The mass flow rate must be the same

everywhere along the stream-tube and so:

ρA∞U∞ = ρAdUd = ρAwUw

Where:
∞ = refers to conditions far upstream
d = refers to conditions at the disc
w = refers to conditions in the far wake
Actuator Disc Concept

• It is usual to consider that the actuator disc

induces a velocity variation which must be
superimposed on the free-stream velocity.
The stream-wise component of this induced
flow at the disc is given by -aU∞
Where, a = axial flow induction factor
Hence:
Ud = U∞(1 - a)
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• Few points to recall:

1. Momentum = Mass x Velocity

2. Rate of change of momentum

=
Momentum/Time = (Mass/Time) x Velocity
=
Force
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• Few points to recall:

3. Force = Pressure x Area

4. Mass flow rate

=
Mass / Time
=
Density x Area x Velocity
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• Few points to recall:

5. Work = Force x Distance

6. Power = Force x Velocity

Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• The air that passes through the disc
undergoes an overall change in velocity,
U∞ - Uw
and a rate of change of momentum equal to
the overall change of velocity times the mass
flow rate:

Rate of change of momentum = (U∞-Uw)ρAdUd

Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• The force causing this change of momentum
comes entirely from the pressure difference
across the actuator disc because the stream-
tube is otherwise completely surrounded by
air at atmospheric pressure, which gives zero
net force. Therefore:
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
+
• To obtain the pressure difference (Pd - Pd)
Bernoulli’s equation is applied separately to
the upstream and downstream sections of the
stream-tube; separate equations are
necessary because the total energy is
different upstream and downstream.
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• Bernoulli’s equation states that, under steady
conditions, the total energy in the flow,
comprising kinetic energy, static pressure
energy and gravitational potential energy,
remains constant provided no work is done on
or by the fluid. Thus, for a unit volume of air:
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:

• Upstream, therefore, we have:

Assuming the flow to be incompressible

and horizontal
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:

• Similarly, downstream:

Subtracting these equations we obtain:

Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:
• This finally results in:

Simplifying,
Actuator Disc Concept

Momentum theory:

• That is, half the axial speed loss in the stream-

tube takes place upstream of the actuator disc
and half downstream.
Actuator Disc Concept

Power coefficient:

• As this force is concentrated at the actuator

disc the rate of work done by the force is FUd
and hence the power extraction from the air
is given by:
Actuator Disc Concept

Power coefficient:

• As this force is concentrated at the actuator

disc the rate of work done by the force is FUd
and hence the power extraction from the air
is given by:
Actuator Disc Concept

Power coefficient:

• A power coefficient is then defined as:

• Here, the denominator represents the power

available in the air, in the absence of the
actuator disc. Therefore:
Actuator Disc Concept

Betz Limit:

• The maximum value of CP occurs when:

• Which gives a value of a = 1/3

• Hence:

Albert Betz
1885-1968
Actuator Disc Concept

Betz Limit:

• The maximum achievable value of the power

coefficient is known as the Betz limit after
Albert Betz the German aerodynamicist and,
to date, no wind turbine has been designed
which is capable of exceeding this limit.
Actuator Disc Concept

Betz Limit:

• The limit is caused not by any deficiency in

design, for, as yet, we have no design, but
because the stream-tube has to expand
upstream of the actuator disc and so the cross
section of the tube where the air is at the full,
free-stream velocity is smaller than the area
of the disc.
Tip-Speed-Ratio (TSR)
The tip-speed ratio (λ) or TSR for wind turbines is
the ratio between the tangential speed of the tip
of a blade and the actual velocity of the wind.

Or:
Where:
ω = Rotational speed (radians/sec)
R = Rotor radius (m)
V = Wind velocity (m/s)
Tip-Speed-Ratio (TSR)

Dependence of Cp on TSR
Rotor Solidity
Wind turbines extract energy by slowing down
the wind. For a wind turbine to be 100% efficient
it would need to stop 100% of the wind - but
then the rotor would have to be a solid disk and
it would not turn and no kinetic energy would be
converted. On the other extreme, if you had a
wind turbine with just one rotor blade, most of
the wind passing through the area swept by the
turbine blade would miss the blade completely
and so the kinetic energy would be kept by the
wind.
Rotor Solidity
Rotor Solidity is the ratio of total rotor platform
or blades area to total
swept area.
R
a
From figure:
Solidity = N x a / A
A
Where:
N = number of blades (N=3)
a = Area of blade
A = Total swept area
Rotor Solidity

Low solidity: 0.10

high speed, low torque

High solidity: >0.80

low speed, high torque
Rotor Solidity

Relation between Solidity, TSR and Cp

 Wind Turbine
Control Methods
http://www.ni.com/white-
paper/8189/en/
Wonderful Wind Turbines

http://www.seao2.com/vawt/