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Power Generation from Wind Using Bladeless Turbine

Chapter · August 2021

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-3132-0_14

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Power Generation from Wind Using
Bladeless Turbine

Ajay Kumar Kaviti and Amit Kumar Thakur

Abstract Among other renewable energy sources, harnessing wind energy is the
least expensive method. A fundamentally different approach to capture wind energy
by further reducing prices is being used by Bladeless Wind Power production. The
device absorbs the energy of the vortex, an aerodynamic influence. If the wind
flows through a buff body, it changes its flow and creates a cyclical vortex pattern.
The fixed structure begins to oscillate until the forces caused by these vortices are
strong enough. The model maximizes the resulting oscillation and captures the
energy instead of preventing these aerodynamic instabilities. Instead of the usual
tower, nacelle, and blades as used in conventional turbines, the device has a fixed
mast to capture wind energy, a power generator, and a shaft. The purpose of this
paper is to ameliorate the understanding of this technology by developing a sim-
ulation model, considering parameters like wind velocity.

Keywords Vorticity
Frequency
Velocity
Bladeless turbine

1 Introduction

In this moment of global market volatility, in order to sustain economic and social
development and to create a better standard of living, especially in developing
countries, the world desperately needs energy in growing quantities. But the supply
of this energy across the globe comes with obligation and dedication. Fulfilling the
growing energy needs in a safe and environmentally responsible manner is a great
issue. Here is where renewable energy comes in, since it is unquenchable, lessens

A. K. Kaviti
VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
A. K. Thakur (&)
School of Mechanical Engineering, Lovely Professional University,
Phagwara, Punjab, India
e-mail: amit.25010@lpu.co.in

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 139
R. Kumar et al. (eds.), Recent Trends in Thermal Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3132-0_14
140 A. K. Kaviti and A. K. Thakur

conventional energy reliance, is sustainable, and delivers energy independence [1].

In India, the field of renewable energy is an established one, supplying up to
18.37% of the installed power capacity in 2017.
In both indoor and outdoor settings, wind energy is a possible power source that
is pervasive. It is obtained by converting the kinetic energy of moving wind into
electrical power [2]. It is more prevalent since it is cost-effective, reliable, pre-
dictable land-based, and one of the lowest-priced energy sources available today.
As of 28-02-2016 wind energy contributes a staggering amount of 56.8% energy in
the renewable power supply of the Indian economy [3].
Harnessing energy from wind has various methods; the conventional one is to
connect the center shaft of the windmill to the generator. This conversion has losses
in energy, and to avoid this, we can switch to bladeless windmills, which utilizes
vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) [4]. The bladeless windmill has less moving parts
than the conventional windmill, hence requires less maintenance than the con-
ventional windmill. It requires less area and wind speed for its area [5].
Adding to this, limit period oscillations may develop due to the interaction of
fluid–structure whenever a particular structure is exposed to wind flow. Utilizing
different conversion methods such as electrostatic, electromagnetic, and piezo-
electric transitions, the vibration strain energy may be productively converted to
electrical energy.
The focus of this article is to provide researchers from different disciplines
involved in small-scale wind energy harvesting with valuable feedback and to help
them develop a superior comprehension of this methodology. By integrating
piezoelectric components into the connecting rod, the energy produced by the
vibrations is transformed into electrical energy.

2 Bladeless Turbine

2.1 Modeling Using CATIA V5

A three-dimensional model as shown in Fig. 1 is prepared using CATIA V5

software. It consists of a mast made of lightweight materials (PVC, FRP, or other
plastics) to capture the wind energy.
The rod is made of flexible materials that oscillate due to the forces acting on the
mast. Therefore, energy can be harvested from the rod. The simplicity of the
structure and absence of moving parts like bearings and gears reduces manufac-
turing, transport, and maintenance costs drastically [6].
Power Generation from Wind Using Bladeless Turbine 141

Fig. 1 3D model of bladeless wind turbine

2.2 Analysis Using ANSYS Fluent

The analysis is carried out in a fluent workbench in ANSYS 18.2 software.

Considering the symmetric nature of the setup, the computational domain is sim-
plified to a 2D geometry. It is 1,200 mm long and 600 mm wide and the cylindrical
mast is placed at a distance of 300 mm from one end. The rectangular side closer to
the cylinder is the inlet and away from the cylinder is the outlet. The other two
rectangular sides are taken as walls. The geometry is created using the
design-modeler workbench in ANSYS software and then the meshing of the
geometry is carried out. A triangular dominant mesh is created. The element face
sizing around the cylinder wall is set to 1 mm, and the face size is gradually
increased up to 50 layers with a growth rate of 1.5 using the inflation command.
The global mesh size has a maximum face size of 10 mm. A total of 14,643 nodes,
20,919 elements, and 35,045 2D interior faces are generated for the above speci-
fications. The geometry and meshed model are shown in Fig. 2a, b, respectively.
The fluent solution is then calculated with double precision and a single processor.
A transient analysis is carried out because von Karman street or flow-induced
vortices is a transient effect. A realizable K-epsilon model is considered. The material
of the cylinder is selected as PVC with a density of 1.38e−6 kg/m3 and a surface
roughness of 0.015 mm. The fluid is taken as air with a density of 1.225 kg/m3 and
viscosity of 1.7894e−05 kg/m-s. The shear condition at the fluid–cylinder boundary
is taken as no-slip while at the fluid–wall boundary is taken as zero shear stress to
reduce any effects due to fluid interaction with the wall. The inlet velocities are varied
between 0.5 and 4 m/s to obtain the frequency of vortices.
142 A. K. Kaviti and A. K. Thakur

Fig. 2 a Geometry of computational domain (all dimensions are in mm). b Meshed domain used
for analysis

A second-order implicit formulation is used for transient formulation.

A lift-coefficient and drag coefficient plots and files are generated. The calculation is
performed for 500 time steps with a time step size of 0.02 s and a maximum of 25
iterations per time step to obtain an accurate result.
Power Generation from Wind Using Bladeless Turbine 143

3 Results and Discussion

Figure 3 represents the formation of vortices for different velocities after a flow
time of 10 s or at the end of the simulation. It can be observed that vortices are
generated for wind velocities of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 m/s but for a wind
velocity of 4.0 m/s, vortex shedding phenomenon is absent. This is because the
Reynolds number is very large (Re = 13,694.80) which increases the turbulence in
the flow and prevents the formation of Karman vortex street.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Fig. 3 Von Karman street a 0.5 m/s, b 1.0 m/s, c 1.5 m/s, d 2.0 m/s, e 2.5 m/s, f 4.0 m/s
144 A. K. Kaviti and A. K. Thakur

Figure 4 represents the flow time(s) against lift-coefficient. The time taken for
the formation of stable Karman vortex street can be inferred from these figures.
Vortex shedding phenomenon is observed at the end of 3.25 s for a wind velocity of
2.0 m/s whereas for other velocities it takes more than 4.0 s.
The frequencies obtained at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m/s are low. At a velocity of 2.0 m/s,
the theoretical frequency obtained is 7.896 Hz (Table 1) while the frequency obtained
from ANSYS analysis is 8.5 Hz (Fig. 4d). The percentage error is 7.65% which is

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Fig. 4 Vortex induction with time a 0.5 m/s, b 1.0 m/s, c 1.5 m/s, d 2.0 m/s, e 2.5 m/s, f 4.0 m/s
Power Generation from Wind Using Bladeless Turbine 145

Fig. 5 Comparison of
theoretical and obtained
frequencies

Table 1 Frequencies for various velocities

S. Velocity Reynolds Strouhal Theoretical Obtained Error
no (m/s) number number frequency frequency (%)
(Re) (St) (Hz) (Hz)
1 0.5 1,711.85 0.1957 1.957 2.5 27.75
2 1.0 3,423.70 0.1968 3.936 4 1.63
3 1.5 5,135.55 0.1972 5.916 7 18.3
4 2.0 6,847.40 0.1974 7.896 8.5 7.65
5 2.5 8,599.25 0.1975 9.875 9 8.86
6 4.0 13,694.80 0.1977 15.816 0 -

relatively small. At 2.5 m/s, a higher frequency of 9 Hz is observed but the

lift-coefficient is very low (around 0.0004).
The average theoretical frequency is 7.566 Hz, and the average obtained fre-
quency is 5.166 Hz. The percentage error is 31.72%. The percentage error can be
minimized by further refining the mesh and increasing the nodes and elements.

4 Conclusion

ANSYS 18.2 fluid workbench has been adapted to simulate the models.
• The appropriate velocity is found out to be 2.0 m/s because a stable Karman
vortex street is observed as soon as 3.25 s after the start of the flow.
• Also, a simulated frequency of 8.5 Hz is obtained which can be used to produce
electrical energy.
• The minimum and maximum percentage errors are 1.63% and 27.75% observed
at 1.0 m/s and 0.5 m/s, respectively. At the velocity of 2.0 m/s, it is found to be
7.65%. This error can be further reduced by increasing the elements and
reducing the time step size.
 146 A. K. Kaviti and A. K. Thakur

References

1. Alrikabi NKMA (2014) Renewable energy types. J Clean Energy Technol 2(1):61–64
2. Shukla V, Kaviti AK (2017) Performance evaluation of profile modifications on straight-bladed
vertical axis wind turbine by energy and Spalart Allmaras models. Energy 126:766–795
3. Mann J, Sorensen JN, Morthorst PE (2008) Wind energy. Environ Res Lett 3(1):015001
4. Chaudhari CC, Shriram MA, Unhale SG, Nirmal RS (2017) Fabrication of vortex bladeless
windmill power generation model. Int J Sci Technol Eng 3(12):52–56
5. Villarreal DJY (2018) U.S. patent no. 9,856,854. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,
Washington, DC
6. PRACE homepage, www.prace-ri.eu

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