Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”

19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.

TURBY®: concept and realisation of a small VAWT

for the built environment
G.J.W. van Bussel, S. Mertens H. Polinder H.F.A. Sidler
TU Delft, section Wind Energy TU Delft, section Electric Power Conversion CORE International
Stevinweg 1, 2628CN Delft Mekelweg 4, 2628CD Delft Heuvelenweg 18, 7241HZ, Lochem
The Netherlands The Netherlands The Netherlands
g.van.bussel@citg.tudelft.nl h.polinder@ewi.tudelft.nl mail@turby.nl

Abstract: shaped blades the Turby® rotor blades run at a

The concept of a skewed bladed VAWT for use on
buildings was successfully developed into a prototype.
A low tip speed ratio rotor was developed as well as a
dedicated direct drive generator. The design couples
an esthetic appearance with good performance and a
low noise level.
Keywords: VAWT, aerodynamics, small wind
turbines, direct drive generator
constant diameter. Its blades are however not parallel
to the main axis, but in a skewed position on the
projected cylindrical surface. In this aspect the design
differs from other types of VAWTs operating with the
lift principle.
Apart from this novelty there is another, less
apparent difference, the design tip speed ratio.
Standard Darrieus wind turbines have a design tip
speed ratio of around 5 [1]. Since Turby® is designed

1 Introduction
The design of modern wind turbines usually focusses
upon three bladed horizontal axis wind turbines
operating with a high tipspeed, typically around 60
m/s. Small windturbine development however also
gains design interest for novel small scale applications
in suburban areas, but also for use in the built
environment. The design of such small wind turbines

• Good performance in complex winds

is driven by a number of requirements:

• Safe operation in the urban environment

• Low noise level
• Simple, rugged design
• Minimised maintenance
• Esthetic appearance

Turby® is a small windturbine developed for use on

buildings. The main area of application is seen on
office buildings at suburban ereas as well as the urban
higher office and residential buildings. The interest in
application of reneweable energy at low energy design
buildings is an expression of the awareness of high-
energy consumption of buildings and the insight that,
apart from using PV panels, also urban wind turbines
can be an option for local generation of electricity.
2 The concept
The Turby® is a lift type VAWT using the principle of
the well-known Darrieus design. Instead of troposkien
Figure 1 Turby®® Prototype at TU Delft
Delft open-air
open-air
research site.
research site.
for urban conditions there was a severe restriction
with respect to noise production. Hence the effort to
reduce the operational tip speed and thus the design
tip speed ratio as much as possible without significant
penalty in its performance. Positioning the blades
along a skewed line along the cylindrical swept
surface is another adaptation to prevent impulsive
noise, reduce the overall noise level, and obtain a
smoother driving torque and a slightly higher effective
chord [6].
Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.

estimate of c d for low. λ . According to [2] the

The three bladed rotor drives a direct drive _
permanent magnet generator at the bottom of the
rotor. This generator is integrated with the bottom minimal tip speed ratio necessary to prevent blade
bearing of the wind turbine rotor. Hence an esthetic stall is equal to
λmin =
appearance is obtained. The rotor of this generator 1
tan α max + σ
(3)
consists of an outer ring with permanent magnets, and
where α max is the maximum angle of attack of the
an inner core with a three-phase winding. The wind
turbine is connected to the grid using a six-pulse

Evidently the value of α max is dependent upon the

rectifier and a single-phase inverter. aerofoil at which attached flow is found.

3 Aerodynamic design of Turby® aerofoil chosen and the Reynolds number at which it
is operating. For the wind tunnel models 1 and 2 using

α max = 10 0 .
a NACA 0012 aerofoil this angle is assumed to be
3.1 Preliminary design
The preliminary design of Turby® as of its first wind
model properties given in table 1: σ = 0.135 ; and
The solidity can be calculated easily with the
tunnel model [6] was performed using standard
multiple stream tube theory; see e.g. [1].
hence the minimal tip speed ratio for the wind tunnel
The solidity of Turby® is, equivalent to the solidity of
λmin = 3.2 . The design tip speed ratio, which is the
models to operate in attached flow conditions is:
a straight bladed Darrieus rotor, defined as

σ = λopt = 3.0 , according to equation (2).

value at which the maximum CP is established equals
2R cosϑ
Bc
(1)

B the number of blades and ϑ the sweep angle of the

where R is the rotor radius, c the chord of the blades,

blade. The term 1/cos ϑ is added to take into account

the effective chord length measured in a horizontal
plane. According to Wilson and Lissaman [2] the
theoretical power coefficient of a straight bladed
Evidently the behaviour of the wind turbine at low tip
speed ratios such as at a typical (design) value of 3 is
very difficult to predict, and thus a series of wind
tunnel experiments were performed.

⎛ _ ⎞
Darrieus wind turbine can then be written as:
3.2 Wind tunnel experiments
3 3 ⎜ 3π cd ⎟
C P = πσλ − σ λ + σ λ ⎜ − 2⎟
16 2 2
⎜ 4 σ ⎟
The first two wind tunnel models had a height of
(2)
⎝ ⎠
3 0.90 m and a diameter of 0.60 m This size was chosen
such that it would have a negligible blockage effect on

where λ is the tip speed ratio and c d is the average

_ the flow of the open jet wind tunnel of TU Delft [3].
This wind tunnel produces a circular jet with an outlet

used for the higher tip speed ratios. At small λ the

sectional drag coefficient. Equation (2) can only be
diameter of 2.20 m. at wind speeds up to 15 m/s. The
models are equipped with a DC motor-generator that
enables testing at any combination of wind speed and
rotational speed. The structural properties as well as
the viscous drag of the support wheels of the first
model were however obstructing the covering of the
full experimental envelope.

Thus a modified model was designed and

Wind tunnel model nr 1 and 2
Parameters
Radius [m] 0.3
Height [m] 0.9
Nr of blades 3
Blade skew angle [degrees] 60
Figure 2: Wind tunnel models nr 1 (left) and 2 (right) Blade sweep angle [degrees] 19.2
Design tip speed ratio 3.0
blade will stall, and the assumed relation between cl Blade chord [m] 0.027
and the angle of attack α : c l = 2π sin α is no longer Aerofoil NACA 0012
valid. Furthermore it will be difficult to make a proper Reynolds number 50 000
Equivalent blade drag coefficient 0.15

Table 1: Design properties of the first wind tunnel

models
Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.

constructed, wind tunnel model nr 2, in which four
circular flat plates supported the skewed blades. With
this structural improvement it was possible to run the
model at full speed, and thus a number of preliminary
performance curves could be determined. However
the viscous and induced drag of the model seemed
again to be higher than anticipated. This could be
verified by spinning the model at very low wind
speeds. It now turned out that the torque needed to
drive the machine at these winds was equal to a blade
drag coefficient of 0.10 (instead of the design value of
0.08). In order to have a good starting point for a third
wind tunnel model it was then decided to determine
values of λ around 3 was significantly less than
targeted. This urged the design of a significantly
different wind tunnel model: model nr 3. The height
of this model was slightly more than of the previous
two but more important, its diameter was increased to
1.5 m.
This had the disadvantage that the ratio between
the swept area of the model and the jet area of the
wind tunnel increased from 0.14 to 0.43, which is on
0.3
0.25

the “gross” power curves for wind tunnel model nr 2.

These curves are obtained by correcting the 0.2

measured torque at a given RPM and wind speed with

CP [.]
0.15 4 m/s
the driving torque needed at the same rotational speed 5 m/s
6 m/s
at almost zero wind speed. The result is shown in 0.1 7 m/s
8 m/s
figure 3 below. 9 m/s
0.05 10 m/s

0.25

0
0.2 Vt=3 m/s 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4 4.2 4.4
Vt=4 m/s labda [.]
Vt=5 m/s
0.15 Vt=7 m/s
Vt=8 m/s
CP [.]

Figure 5: Measured nett performance coefficient

0.1
of wind tunnel model nr. 3 at different wind
0.05 speeds.
the edge of an acceptable ratio [3]. The advantage is
0
2 2.5 3 3.5 4
labda [.]
4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5
that the power extracted increases proportionally.
Furthermore the chord of the model was enlarged to
Figure 3: Measured gross performance of wind 0.08 m., which means that significantly higher

It results in a solidity σ = 0.16 , which is slightly

tunnel model nr. 2 in the open jet wind tunnel of Reynolds numbers can be reached in the experiments.
TU Delft (base drag subtracted).
more than in the two earlier models. The consequence

Wind tunnel model nr 3

Parameters
Radius [m] 0.75
Height [m] 1.12
Nr. of blades 3
Blade skew angle [degrees] 60
Blade sweep angle [degrees] 35
Design tip speed ratio 3.0
Blade chord [m] 0.08
Strut chord top and bottom [m] 0.06
Strut chord centre [m] 0.027
Aerofoil NACA 0018
Reynolds number 150 000
Equivalent blade drag coefficient 0.1
Figure 4: Wind tunnel model nr 3 in front of the
open jet wind tunnel of TU Delft. Table 2: Design properties of wind tunnel model nr 3

The optimal tip speed ratio deducted from these will be that this new design will perform better at the

sectional stall angle of α max = 12 0 , the minimum tip

graphs is around 4.5. This is not that strange since in lower tip speed ratios. With equation (3), assuming a
the absence of drag, the power coefficient curves
speed ratio becomes: λmin = 2.7 .
of λ .
always show a maximum at a significant higher value

But it was also found that the power coefficient at The optimal tip speed ratio is calculated as
Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.
λopt = 2.5 , using an equivalent blade drag coefficient
cd = 0.10.
This value was obtained by carefully
designing the support struts and the strut-blade
connection at the top, the central and the bottom end
of the blades. A picture of the resulting model in front
of the wind tunnel is given in figure 4. Photographic
distortion makes the model (close to the camera) look
too large with respect to the wind tunnel exit.
Dimensions and other properties of model nr 3 are
given in table 2. With this wind tunnel model a
number of power curves were generated. They are
presented in figure 5. In this case the non dimensional
nett power (measured shaft torque times rotational
speed) is plotted as a function of tip speed ratio. It can
be concluded from these graphs that there is a clear
influence of the Reynolds number on the performance.
For the higher wind speeds the power coefficient
reaches a maximum value close to 0.3 at a tip speed
ratio 3.2. This meant that one of the targets: achieving
λ was met.
a reasonable aerodynamic efficiency at a low value of
4 Performance in skewed flow
4.1 Flow conditions at flat rooftops
Flow conditions at flat rooftops differ considerably
from those in the free field. Apart from larger
fluctuations in wind speed and wind direction one
must also take into account the fact that the wind
direction on top of a building might not be horizontal.
This is clearly shown in figure 6 where the turbulent
separation area is visualised at the leading edge of a
building [4].
Figure 6: CFD calculations showing skewed flow
above the separation area at the roof.
Evidently a roof top wind turbine must not be
located in the separation area directly above the
building. But when the rotor height exceeds the level
of the separating streamline the flow is not horizontal.
The wind turbine will operate in a skewed flow. For
HAWT’s such condition is comparable to yawed flow
operation, but for VAWT’s it is a different operational
condition. In order to determine some experimental
back up of this theory a set of skewed flow wind
tunnel experiments were performed.
4.2 Skewed flow experiments
Yet another wind tunnel model was designed for
skewed flow experiments in the open jet wind tunnel
[7]. In order to avoid blockage, the dimensions of this
model were significantly smaller than the Turby® wind
tunnel models. Furthermore its geometry is different.
The blades do not have a skew angle and the
positioning of the struts differs from the other three
models see fig. 7. With a new wind tunnel model the
effects of skewed flow on the behaviour of a straight
bladed Darrieus rotor were determined. The properties
of the model can be found in table 3.
Wind tunnel model nr 4
DU-H2-5075
Radius [m] 0.375
Height [m] 0.50
Nr of blades 2
Blade skew angle [degrees] 0
Blade sweep angle [degrees] 0
Design tip speed ratio 3.0
Blade chord [m] 0.08
Aerofoil NACA 0018
Reynolds number 150 000
Equivalent blade drag coefficient 0.08
Table 3: Design properties of the skewed flow wind
tunnel model DU-H2-5075.
The maximum power coefficient of this model in
perpendicular flow was found to be 0.13 at a tip speed
Figure 7: The DU-H2-5075 wind tunnel model
spinning in the skewed flow experiments
ratio λ = 2.9 . The model was mounted horizontally in
the wind tunnel to allow easy changes of the skew
Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.

angle. Power curves were measured at skew angles to the zero skew angle situation equals 40% for the
from 10 to 60 degrees with a 10 degree interval. The wind tunnel model. This explains the increased
results are shown in figure 8. The experiments showed performance. However the measured performance
that a significant power increase was experienced at increase is somewhat less. In [4] a theoretical model

power coefficient of 0.175 at a tip speed ratio λ = 3.25

skew angles of 25 to 30 degrees, with a maximum of
[7].
Thus a significant increase in performance of
almost 35% is achieved.
Figure 8: Measured power coeffieicents of the DU-
H2_5075 rotor in skewed flow forskew angles from
0 to 60 degrees.
4.3 Skewed flow aerodynamics
The increased performance found in the
experiment can be attributed to the increase in
“projected area”. The definition of power coefficient
for a straight bladed VAWT is related to the projected
swept area 2R*H; where R is the radius and H the
height of the rotor. For skewed flow the projected
swept area (projected on a plane perpendicular to the
oncoming flow) evidently increases, and hence the
ability to extract more power. For a skew angle of 250
was derived for skewed flow operation. The ideas
behind this theory can be explained with the help of
figure 9.
The basic assumption in this theory is that multiple
stream tube theory is now applied on different areas:
the single rotor part areas, where the flow “meets” the
rotor blades only once, and the double rotor part area
where there is a double interaction between the flow
and the blades. Evidently these areas depend upon the
skew angle and the induced velocity by the different
rotor parts. The resulting performance prediction is
then obtained by addition of the performances of the
single rotor part stream tubes and the double rotor part
stream tubes. This theory predicts indeed an increased
power coefficient with a shift towards higher tip speed
ratio.
The fact that the optimal situation in the single
rotor part and in the double rotor part occurs at
different values of the tip speed ratio explains why the
measured increase in performance is less than 48%.
Yet advantage can be taken of this phenomenon in
actual rooftop application of Turby®.
A further insight in the skewed flow aerodynamics
of straight bladed VAWT’s was obtained from
velocity measurements close to the wind tunnel
model.
Measurements were taken along paths parallel to the
rotor axis.
Figure 10 shows the average velocities close to the
centreline of the model (R=0) and at a location

Askew = 2RH cos 250 + πR 2 sin 250 ≈ 1.81RH + 1.33R 2

this increase in projected swept area is equal to:

The increase in projected swept area with respect

s
d

d
s

Figure 9: Skewed flow through an H- Darriues

rotor showing single(s) and double(d) rotor parts.
Figure 10: Average velocities measured close to the
DU-H2-5075 rotor close to the rotor axis (R=0) and
directly behind the rotor at a radius of 0.415 m (R=-
41.5).
Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.

directly behind the rotor (R=-41.5). Measurements magnetic flux density.

were taken at zero skew angle (solid white lines) and For optimal integration and simplicity of the total
at 30 degrees skew angle (black solid lines). From design the generator is designed inside out: the outer
figure 7 it can be seen that the struts with which the part is the rotor with the permanent magnets. The
two blades are mounted on the axis are located magnets are positioned in a skewed way inside the
inboard of the blade tips. This made it possible to rotor to reduce cogging, see figure 11. This
make hot wire traces approximately 0.10 m inside the arrangement eases the start-up of the wind turbine in
rotor. low winds.
Wind tunnel speed was set at 7 m/s for these
experiments. The solid white line in the top graph
shows that the flow is symmetric at zero skew angle.
Note that no measured velocities are available
between 0.10 and 0.40 m longitude (distance along the
rotor axis). The bottom graph shows measurements
directly behind the rotor, and here no restrictions
apply with respect to positions at which measurements
can be taken. Again the bottom solid line shows a
symmetric shape (as it should be), with a deficit of
around 5 m/s with respect to the wind tunnel velocity. Figure
Figure 11.
11. Photographs of the
Photographs of the rotor (left) and
rotor (left) and the
the
This shows that the rotor is close to its optimal stator (right).
stator (right).
conditions.
The black lines show the average velocities at a
skew angle of 300 for the same wind speed and 5.2 Generator design optimisation
rotational speed. Evidently these curves are no longer
symmetric. Furthermore it appears that the velocity A set of equations has been derived that give the
deficit is larger; but there is also a secondary area with relations between the generator dimensions and the
reduced velocities in the single rotor part area. generator parameters (such as no-load voltage,
Modelling of these complex phenomena will be synchronous inductance, resistances, losses). Using
subject for further research at TU Delft. these parameters, for each operating point of the
turbine (depending on wind speed), the losses in the
generator and the power supplied to the grid are
5. The generator design calculated. Combination with an assumed Weibull
distribution of wind speeds determines the annual
5.1 Generator design considerations energy supplied to the grid and the annual energy
dissipated in the generator.
The criterion of a simple rugged design led to the
choice for a direct-drive permanent-magnet (PM)
generator. Using a direct-drive generator means that
there is no gearbox which needs maintenance (e.g.
lubrication) and is a possible source of failures. Using
a PM generator means the ability to run with variable
speed without an electrical contact element between
stator and rotor. This again is favourable from the
aspect of maintenance.
Based upon the final dimensions of the Turby®
(1 m radius and 2.65 m height) a power level of 2.5
kW was chosen. For such sizes, the turbine consists of
parts with manageable dimensions and weight. For
power levels of a few kW, it is of course possible to
buy of-the-shelf generators and converters. However,
these components are in general not optimised for this
application, and therefore less efficient and on the
long term also more expensive and than dedicated
designed components. For the grid connection, a six-
pulse rectifier and a single phase PWM inverter are
used. Neodymium Iron Boron Magnet (NdFeB)
magnets are used because of their low price and high Figure 12: Voltage, current, and generator
losses as a function of wind speed.
Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.
With an optimisation process, similar to the
process described in [5], the dimensions of the
generator were varied in order to minimize the active
material cost and to maximize the annual energy yield.
Fig. 10 depicts the stator and the rotor of the
generator. Fig. 11 shows the phase voltage, the
current, and the generator losses of the final design as
a function of the wind speed.
5.1 Laboratory experiments
After manufacturing the generator a number of
tests have been performed in the power electronics
laboratories of TU Delft. The load that was applied
upon the generator during these experiments consists
of a six-pulse rectifier with a capacitor and a resistor
behind the rectifier. Fig. 13 gives measured voltage
and current wave forms of the generator at two
Figure 13. Measured line voltage and phase
current at two different loads with a capacitor
behind the rectifier.
different speeds and with two different loads. Because
of the high efficiency, the generator can be heavily
overloaded without thermal problems. As can be seen
this is the case in one of the measurements.
6. Current status
A first prototype was erected in spring 2003 at the
open-air research site of TU Delft. Preliminary
measurements showed that the machine starts
producing at an ambient wind speed of 3.5 m/s and
confirmed the predicted performance of the machine
in real field conditions, figure 14.
Furthermore these field experiments showed that
Turby®, due to its skewed blade design, is indeed not
noisy and that there is hardly any torque ripple visible
in the measured signals.
Over the course of the year 2003 the controller of
the machine was further optimised, as well as the
production process of the rotor blades. The blades of
Figure 14: Calculated power curve of the Turby,
based upon wind tunnel results with model nr 3
and laboratory tests of the generator.
the first prototype were made of extruded aluminum,
where for the production machine carbon fibre blades
are chosen. This allowed a reduction of the number of
struts from three per blade (fig. 1) to only one. This
will have a favourable effect upon the performance of
Turby® .The rotor shaft and generator bearing were
further optimized to reduce friction losses and to tune
the complete configuration dynamically for smooth
operation over the complete range of wind speeds.
Finally a dedicated tower was designed and
manufactured. The first product of the first series of
commercial Turby®s was delivered mid January 2004.
After a final performance test and commissioning of
this machine the Turby® will be available on the
market.
7. Conclusions
The concept of a small VAWT for use in the built
environment was, through a series of wind tunnel
experiments, developed with success into a prototype.
The design requirements were met. The combination
of a direct drive Permanent Magnet generator with a
skewed VAWT rotor designed for low tip speed
ratio’s lead to an esthetic result. Compared to other
wind turbines of similar size the Turby® shows good
aerodynamic and electric performance, although this
must be verified in the final performance tests.
A novel feature was identified, with regard to skewed
flow conditions, as are often experienced for roof top
locations. Wind tunnel experiments showed that in
such cases the aerodynamic power showed a
significant increase.
A first aerodynamic model for this phenomenon was
developed, but further research needs to be carried
out.
A direct drive permanent magnet generator was
developed, matched to the predicted aerodynamic
power of the rotor. The typical electrical efficiency of
this generator is well above 90% over the whole range
of operating conditions.
 Paper presented at the EAWE/EWEA Special Topic conference “The Science of making Torque from Wind”
19-21 April 2004, Delft, The Netherlands ISBN 90-764768-10-9. pp 509-516.

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[2]. R.E. Wilson and P.B.S. Lissaman Applied
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1974.
[3]. L.J. Vermeer A Review of Wind Turbine Wake
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[4]. S. Mertens, G.A.M. van Kuik, G.J.W. van Bussel
Performance of an H-Darrieus in the skewed flow
on a roof, Journal of Solar Energy Engineering
2003, pp. 433 - 440.
[5].H. Polinder, J.G. Slootweg ‘Design optimization of
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[6].S. Mertens, Turby, aerodynamisch ontwerp van
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[7].J.A. Sardo, ‘Theory and measurements on H-
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