Experimental Investigation on Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Rotor Using Winglets

P. Saravanan; K. M. Parammasivam; S. Selvi Rajan

doi:10.6180/jase.2013.16.2.07

Experimental Investigation on Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Rotor Using Winglets

Saravanan P. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.¹, Parammasivam K. M.² and Selvi Rajan S.³

¹Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Tagore Engineering College, Chennai 600048, India
²Department of Aerospace Engg, MIT, Anna University, Chennai 600044, India
³Wind Engineering Laboratory, CSIR-Structural Engg Research Centre, Chennai 600113, India

Received: January 10, 2012
Accepted: September 10, 2012
Publication Date: June 1, 2013

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.2013.16.2.07

ABSTRACT

The present study explores the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the small horizontal axis wind turbine rotor by adding winglets at the tip of the blade. The effects of changing the winglet configuration with the blade on the power performance of small wind turbine rotor models were investigated experimentally. The blades with four different configurations of winglets are fabricated using Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic materials and are used for the study. Experiments were conducted for all the rotor models with and without load conditions in the wind tunnel for various conditions. The power output is measured for the rotor models with load conditions. The maximum power coefficient obtained for an effective winglet configuration is about 0.43. It is observed that presence of winglet at the tip of the wind turbine blade will improve the power coefficient for low wind speed regions. It is recommended that the smaller curvature radius with sufficient winglet height added to the wind turbine rotor captures more wind energy in low wind speed region as against wind turbine rotors without winglets.

Keywords: Wind Turbine Rotor, Winglets, Rotation Rates, Tip Speed Ratio, Power Coefficient

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