Wind turbine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A tall tower holds a wind turbine aloft where winds are consistently stronger.

A wind turbine is a machine for converting the kinetic energy in wind into
mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as
a pump or grinding stones, the machine is usually called a windmill. If the
mechanical energy is then converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind
generator.

This article discusses the conversion machinery. See the broader article on wind
power for more on turbine placement and controversy, and in particular see the
wind energy section of that article for an understanding of the temporal distribution
of wind energy and how that affects wind turbine design.

For a machine that generates wind, see wind machine. For an unusual way to
induce a voltage using an aerosol of ionised water, see vaneless ion wind generator.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Types of wind turbines

o 1.1 Horizontal axis
 1.1.1 Counter-rotating horizontal axis turbines
 1.1.2 Cyclic stresses and vibration
o 1.2 Vertical axis
o 1.3 Offshore
o 1.4 Aerial
• 2 Turbine design and construction
 o 2.1 Tower height
o 2.2 Number of blades
o 2.3 Rotation control
 2.3.1 Stalling and furling
 2.3.2 Electromagnetic braking
 2.3.3 Mechanical braking
o 2.4 Turbine size
o 2.5 Generating electricity
o 2.6 Materials
• 3 History
• 4 Companies in wind turbine industry
• 5 See also
• 6 External links

• 7 References
[edit]

Types of wind turbines

Wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains, California.

There are many types of wind turbines. They can be separated into two general
types based on the axis about which the turbine rotates. Turbines that rotate around
a horizontal axis are most common.

Additionally, we can also distinguish between wind turbines on the location in

which they are to be used. Onshore, offshore, or even aerial wind turbines have
unique design characteristics which are explained in more detail in the section on
Turbine design and construction.

Wind turbines can also be used in conjuction with a solar power tower to extract
the energy due to air heated by the Sun and rising thorugh a large vertical solar
chimney. The first commercial solar power tower of this type is in the early stages
of construction in Australia.
[edit]

Horizontal axis

All existing HAWTs (or Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine) have the main rotor shaft
and generator at the top of a tower, and must be pointed into the wind by some
means. Small turbines are pointed by a simple wind vane, while large turbines
generally use a wind sensor coupled with a servomotor. Most have a gearbox too,
which turns the slow rotation of the blades into a quicker rotation that is more
suitable for generating electricity.

Since a tower produces turbulence behind it, the turbine is usually pointed upwind
of the tower. Turbine blades are made stiff to prevent the blades from being pushed
into the tower by high winds. Additionally, the blades are placed a considerable
distance in front of the tower and are sometimes tilted up a small amount.

Downwind machines have been built, despite the problem of turbulence, because
they don't need an additional mechanism for keeping them in line with the wind,
and because in high winds, the blades can be allowed to bend which reduces their
swept area and thus their wind resistance. Because turbulence leads to fatigue
failures and reliability is so important, most HAWTs are upwind machines.

There are several types of HAWT.

• Windmills -- These 4 bladed squat

buildings, usually with wooden shutters or
fabric sails, were pointed into the wind
manually. These windmills, generally
associated with the Netherlands, were
historically used to grind grain or pump water
from low-lying land. They greatly accelerated
shipbuilding in the Netherlands, and were
instrumental in keeping its polders dry.

• American Style Farm Windmills --

These windmills were used by American
prairie farmers to generate electricity, to
power the water pumps with which they
pumped their wells until rural electrification
replaced them in the 1950s. They typically
had many blades, operated at tip speed ratios
(defined below) not better than one, and had
good starting torque. Some had small direct-
current generators used to charge storage
 batteries, to provide a few lights, or to
operate a radio receiver. They were never
used to power the electrical grid in any large
amount.

• Common modern wind turbines --

usually three-bladed, sometimes two-bladed
or even one-bladed (and counterbalanced),
and pointed into the wind by computer-
controlled yaw motors. The rugged three-
bladed turbine type has been championed by
Danish turbine manufacturers. These have
high tip speed ratios, high efficiency, and low
torque ripple which contributes to good
reliability. This is the type of turbine that is
used to produce electricity.

• Ducted rotor -- Still something of a

research project, the ducted rotor consists of a
turbine inside a duct which flares outwards at
the back. The main advantage of the ducted
rotor is that it can operate in a wide range of
winds. Another advantage is that the
generator operates at a high rotation rate, so it
doesn't require a bulky gearbox, so the
mechanical portion can be smaller and
lighter. A disadvantage is that (apart from the
gearbox) it is more complicated than the
unducted rotor and the duct is usually quite
heavy, which puts an added load on the
tower.

[edit]

Counter-rotating horizontal axis turbines

Counter rotating turbines can be used to increase the rotation speed of the electrical
generator. When the counter rotating turbines are on the same side of the tower, the
blades on the one in front are angled forwards slightly so as to never hit the rear
ones. They are either both geared to the same generator or, more often, one is
connected to the rotor and the other to the field windings. Counter rotating turbines
geared to the same generator have additional gearing losses. Counter rotating
turbines connected to the rotor and stator are mechanically simpler; but, the field
windings need slip rings which adds complexity, wastes some electricity and
wastes some mechanical power. As of 2005, no large practical counter-rotating
HAWTs are commercially sold.

Counter rotating turbines can be on opposite sides of the tower. In this case it is
best that the one at the back be smaller than the one at the front and set to stall at a
higher wind speed. This way, at low wind speeds, both turn and the generator taps
the maximum proportion of the wind's power. At intermediate speeds, the front
turbine stalls; but, the rear one keeps turning, so the wind generator has a smaller
wind resistance and the tower can still support the generator. At high wind speeds
both turbines stall, the wind resistance is at a minimum and the tower can still
support the generator. This allows the generator to function at a wider wind speed
range than a single-turbine generator for a given tower.

To reduce sympathetic vibrations, the two turbines should turn at speeds with few
common factors, for example 7:3 speed ratio. Overall, this is a more complicated
design than the single-turbine wind generator, but it taps more of the wind's energy
at a wider range of wind speeds.

[edit]

Cyclic stresses and vibration

Cyclic stresses fatigue the blade, axle and bearing material, and were a major cause
of turbine failure for many years. The principle advantage of a horizontal over a
vertical rotation axis is much lower cycling stresses, but even so, HAWTs endure
significant cyclic stresses which strongly affect their design.

Because wind velocity increases at higher altitudes, the backward force and torque
on a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) blade peaks as it turns through the
highest point in its circle. The tower hinders the airflow at the lowest point in the
circle, which produces a local dip in force and torque. These two effects combine to
produce a cyclic twist on the main bearings of a HAWT. The combined twist is
worst in machines with an even number of blades, where one is straight up when
another is straight down. To improve reliability, teetering hubs are used which
allow the main shaft to rock through a few degrees, so that the main bearings do not
have to resist the torque peaks.

When the turbine turns to face the wind, the rotating blades act like a gyroscope. As
it pivots, gyroscopic precession tries to twist the turbine into a forward or backward
somersault. For each blade on a wind generator's turbine, precessive force is at a
minimum when the blade is horizontal and at a maximum when the blade is
vertical. This cyclic twisting can quickly fatigue and crack the blade roots, hub and
axle of the turbine.
[edit]

Vertical axis

Vertical axis turbines (or VAWTs) have the main rotor shaft running vertically.
The main advantages of this arrangement are that the generator and/or gearbox can
be placed at the bottom, on or near the ground, so the tower doesn't need to support
it, and the fact that the turbine doesn't need to be pointed into the wind. Drawbacks
are usually the pulsating torque produced during each revolution, and the difficulty
of mounting vertical axis turbines on towers. This means they must operate in the
slower, more turbulent air flow near the ground, with lower energy extraction
efficiency.

H-Darrieus-turbine

Darrieus wind turbine -- These are the

"eggbeater" turbines. They have good
efficiency, but produce large torque ripple
and cyclic stress on the tower, which
contributes to poor reliability. Also, they
generally require some external power source
to start turning.

• Savonious wind turbine -- These are

the familar two or three scoop drag-type
devices used in anemometers and some high-
reliability low-efficiency power turbines.
[edit]

Offshore

Offshore wind turbines are considered to be less obtrusive than turbines on land, as
their apparent size and noise can be mitigated by distance. Because water has less
surface roughness than land, the average wind speed is usually higher over open
water. This allows offshore turbines to use shorter towers, making them less
visible. In stormy areas with extended shallow continental shelves (such as
Denmark), turbines are practical to install, and give good service - Denmark's wind
generation provides about 12-15% of total electricity demand in the country, with
many offshore windfarms. Denmark plans to increase wind energy's contribution to
as much as half of its electrical supply.

The offshore environment is, however, more expensive. Offshore towers are
generally taller than onshore towers once one includes the submerged height, and
offshore foundations are generally more difficult to build and more expensive as
well. Power transmission from offshore turbines is generally through undersea
cable, which is far more expensive to install than cables on land and requires high
voltage direct current operation if significant distance is to be covered -- which then
requires yet more equipment. The offshore environment is also corrosive and
abbrasive. Repairs and maintenance are much more difficult, and much more costly
than on onshore turbines. Offshore wind turbines are outfitted with extensive
corrosion protection measures like coatings and cathodic protection.

While there is a significant market for small land-based windmills, offshore wind
turbines have recently been and will probably continue to be the largest wind
turbines in operation, because larger turbines reduce the marginal cost of many of
the difficulties of offshore operation.

There are some conceptual designs that might make use of the unique offshore
environment. For example, a floating turbine might orient itself downwind of its
anchor, and thus avoid the need for a yawing mechanism. One concept for offshore
turbines has them generate rain, instead of electricity. The turbines would create a
fine aerosol, which is envisioned to increase evaporation and induce rainfall,
hopefully on land [1].

[edit]

Aerial

Winds at a height of a few kilometres are quite constant and very fast (often over
40 m/s). Theoretically, flying wind turbines could tap into the energy in these
winds. One design has four turbines linked together forming a kind of kite. Winds
keep the construction in the air, while causing the blades on the turbines to rotate.
The kite wire would carry the electrical energy to the ground. This approach would
require no-fly-zones around the deployment site, and might require electrical
energy to remain aloft if the winds would ever die down.

[edit]

Turbine design and construction

[edit]

Tower height

The wind blows faster at higher altitudes because of the drag of the surface (sea or
land) and the viscosity of the air. The variation in velocity with altitude, called
wind shear is most dramatic near the surface. Typically, the variation follows the
1/7th power law, which predicts that wind speed rises proportionally to the seventh
root of altitude. Doubling the altitude of a turbine, then, increases the expected
wind speeds by 10% and the expected power by 34%. Doubling the tower height
generally requires doubling the diameter as well, increasing the amount of material
by a factor of eight.

For HAWTs, tower heights approximately twice the blade length have been found
to balance material costs of the tower against better utilisation of the more
expensive active components.

[edit]

Number of blades

For small (novelty or urban) HAWT turbines manufacturers typically ship three-
bladed turbines with three separate blades that must be assembled onsite, into a
central hub. Without careful assembly ensuring accurate 120 degree spacing
between blades, the turbine can shake itself apart.

Although turbines can be built with any number of blades, there are many
constraints. There are a number of vibration modes that increase in peak intensity
as the number of blades decreases. Some of these vibrations, besides causing wear
on the machine, are also audible. Thus, noise and wear considerations point to
larger numbers of blades, generally at least 3.

Many small scale wind turbines, such as the Whisper 175, use 2 blades because
such turbines are easy to construct as they avoid the need for using a hub with
linkages to individual blades, and the blade(s) can be shipped easily in one long
package. Three-bladed turbines, which are much more efficient, and more quiet,
require more complicated onsite assembly.

Turbines with larger numbers of smaller blades operate at a lower Reynolds

number and are therefore less efficient. Small turbines with 4 or more blades suffer
further losses as each blade operates partly in the wake of the other blades. Also,
the cost of the turbine usually increases with the number of blades.

Most wind turbines have three blades.

[edit]

Rotation control

Tip speed ratio

The ratio between the speed of the wind and
the speed of the tips of the blades of a wind
turbine.

Modern wind turbines are designed to spin at varying speeds (a consequence of

their generator design, see below). Use of aluminum and composites in their blades
has contributed to low rotational inertia, which means that newer wind turbines can
accelerate quickly if the winds pick up, keeping the tip speed ratio more nearly
constant. Operating closer to their optimal tip speed ratio during energetic gusts of
wind allows wind turbines to improve energy capture from sudden gusts that are
typical in urban settings.

In contrast, older style wind turbines were designed with heavier steel blades,
which have higher inertia, and rotated at speeds governed by the AC frequency of
the power lines. The high inertia buffered the changes in rotation speed and thus
made power output more stable.
The speed at which wind turbines rotate must be controlled for several reasons:

• Maintenance; because it is dangerous

to have people working on a wind turbine
while it is active, it is sometimes necessary to
bring a turbine to a full stop.

• Noise reduction; As a rule of thumb,

the noise from a wind turbine increases with
the fifth power of the relative wind speed (as
seen from the moving tip of the blades). In
noise-sensitive environments (nearly all
onshore installations), noise limits the tip
speed to approximately 60 m/s. High
efficiency turbines may have tip speed ratios
of 5-6, which, for onshore turbines, limits
high efficiency operation to winds of just 10
m/s.

• Centripetal force reduction; as the

rotational speed increases, so does the
centripetal force working on the central hub
or axis. When it exceeds safe limits blades
could snap off, and the turbine would fail
dramatically.

Because the power of the wind increases as the cube of the speed wind, turbines
have to be built to survive much higher wind loads (such as gusts of wind) than
those from which they can practically generate power. Since the blades generate
more downwind force (and thus put far greater strain on the tower) when they are
producing torque, most wind turbines have ways of slowing rotation in high winds.
Overspeed control is exerted in two main ways: aerodynamic stalling or furling,
and mechanical braking. Furling is the preferred method of slowing wind turbines.

[edit]

Stalling and furling

Stalling works by increasing the angle at which the relative wind strikes the blades
(angle of attack), and it reduces the induced drag (drag associated with lift).
Stalling is simple because it can be made to happen passively (it increases
automatically when the winds speed up), but it increases the cross-section of the
blade face-on to the wind, and thus the ordinary drag. A fully stalled turbine blade,
when stopped, has the flat side of the blade facing directly into the wind.
Furling works by decreasing the angle of attack, which reduces the induced drag
from the lift of the rotor, as well as the cross-section. One major problem in
designing wind turbines is getting the blades to stall or furl quickly enough should
a gust of wind cause sudden acceleration. A fully furled turbine blade, when
stopped, has the edge of the blade facing into the wind.

A fixed-speed HAWT inherently increases its angle of attack at higher wind speed
as the blades speed up. A natural strategy, then, is to allow the blade to stall when
the wind speed increases. This technique was used on many early HAWTs, until it
was realised that stalled blades generate a large amount of vibration (noise).
Standard modern turbines all furl the blades in high winds. Since furling requires
acting against the torque on the blade, it requires active (usually hydraulic) pitch
angle control which is only cost-effective on very large turbines. These systems are
usually spring loaded, so that if hydraulic power fails, the blades automatically furl.

[edit]

Electromagnetic braking

Dynamic braking resistor for wind turbine.

Braking of a turbine can also be done by dumping energy from the generator into a
resistor bank, converting the kinetic energy of the turbine rotation into heat. This
method is useful if the connected load on the generator is suddenly reduced or is
too small to keep the turbine speed within its allowed limit. Cyclically braking
causes the blades to slow down, which increases the stalling effect, reducing the
efficiency of the blades. This way, the turbine's rotation can be kept at a safe speed
in faster winds while maintaining (nominal) power output.

[edit]

Mechanical braking

A mechanical drum brake or disk brake is used to hold the turbine at rest for
maintenance. Such brakes are usually applied only after blade furling and
electromagnetic braking have reduced the turbine speed, as the mechanical brakes
would wear quickly if used to stop the turbine from full speed.

[edit]

Turbine size

In the wind business, bigger is better. Construction and maintenance costs are
similar for large and small turbines, so utility companies build the largest feasible
turbines.

For a given survivable wind speed, the mass of a turbine is approximately

proportional to the cube of its blade-length. Wind power intercepted by the turbine
is proportional to the square of its blade-length. The maximum blade-length of a
turbine is limited by both the strength and stiffness of its material.

Labor and maintenance costs increase only gradually with increasing turbine size,
so to minimize costs, wind farm turbines are basically limited by the strength of
materials, and siting requirements.

[edit]

Generating electricity

Wind turbines generate electricity, using an electrical generator. Moving a

conductor through a magnetic field will develop a voltage across the conductor.
For large, commercial size horizontal-axis wind turbines, the generator is mounted
in a nacelle at the top of a tower, behind the hub of the turbine rotor. Depending on
the manufacturer, a speed increasing gear box may be inserted between the rotor
hub and the generator, so that the generator cost and weight can be reduced. In a
vertical-axis wind turbine the heavy generator and gearbox can be mounted near the
ground, which makes maintenance easier and reduces some components of
structural cost; but these advantages do not offset the torque-ripple-induced
reliability disadvantage of vertical-axis turbines, and so they are not used for
commercial electric power production.

Commercial size generators have a rotor carrying a field winding so that a rotating
magnetic field is produced inside a set of windings called the stator. While the
rotating field winding consumes a few per cent of the generator output, adjustment
of the field current allows good control over the generator output voltage. Very
small wind generators (a few watts to perhaps a kilowatt in output) may use
permanent magnets but these are too costly to use in large machines and do not
allow convenient regulation of the generator voltage.

Electrical generators inherently produce AC power, as the voltage changes

direction (from positive to negative) whenever the poles of the magnet switch
places. Older style wind generators rotate at a constant speed, to match power line
frequency (60 Hz in North America, 50 Hz in most of the rest of the world), which
allowed the use of less costly induction generators. Newer wind turbines often turn
at whatever speed generates electricity most efficiently. The variable frequency
current is then converted to DC and then back to AC matching the line frequency
and voltage. Although the two conversions require costly equipment and cause
power loss, the turbine can capture a significantly larger amount of the wind power.
In some cases, especially when turbines are sited offshore, the DC energy will be
transmitted from the turbine to a central (onshore) inverter for connection to the
grid.

[edit]

Materials

One of the best construction materials available (in 2001) is graphite-fibre in

epoxy. Graphite composites can be used to build turbines of sixty meters radius,
enough to tap a few megawatts of power. Smaller household turbines can be made
of lightweight fiberglass, aluminum, or sometimes laminated wood.

Wood and canvas sails were originally used on early windmills. Unfortunately they
require much maintenance over their service life. Also, they have a relatively high
drag (low aerodynamic efficiency) for the force they capture. For these reasons
they were superseded with solid airfoils.
[edit]

History

High-efficiency wind turbines (foreground) win out over traditional windmills

(background) in most new installations.

Wind machines were used for grinding grain in Persia as early as 200 B.C. This
type of machine spread throughout the Islamic world and were introduced by
Crusaders into Europe in the 13th century. Windmills have been used to grind grain
since around the 10th century, but they do not generate electricity. By the 14th
century Dutch windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine River delta. Wind
turbines, machines that harness the energy of the wind to generate electrical energy,
were first invented in the 19th century in Denmark.In Denmark by 1900 there were
about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an
estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW. The first windmill for electricity
production was built in Denmark in 1890, and in 1908 there were 72 wind-driven
electric generators from 5 kW to 25 kW. The largest machines were on 24 m towers
with four-bladed 23 m diameter rotors.

By the 1930s windmills were mainly used to generate electricity on farms, mostly
in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this
period, high tensile steel was cheap, and windmills were placed atop prefabricated
open steel lattice towers. A forerunner of modern horizontal-axis wind generators
was in service at Yalta, USSR in 1931. This was a 100 kW generator on a 30 m
tower, connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system. It was reported to have an
annual load factor of 32 per cent, not much different from current wind machines.
In 1941 the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine was connected to the local
electrical distribution system at Grandpa's Knob, Vermont, USA. This 1.25 MW
Smith-Putnam turbine operated for 1100 hours before a blade failed at a known
weak point, which had not been reinforced due to war-time material shortages. In
the 1940s, the U.S. had a rural electrification project that killed the natural market
for wind-generated power, since network power distribution provided a farm with
more dependable usable energy for a given amount of capital investment.

In the 1970s many people began to desire a self-sufficient life-style. Solar cells
were too expensive for small-scale electrical generation, so practical people turned
to windmills. At first they built ad-hoc designs using wood and automobile parts.
Most people discovered that a reliable wind generator is a moderately complex
engineering project, well beyond the ability of most romantics. Practical people
began to search for and rebuild farm wind-generators from the 1930s. Jacobs wind
generators were especially sought after.

Later, in the 1980s, California provided tax rebates for ecologically harmless
power. These rebates funded the first major use of wind power for utility
electricity. These machines, gathered in large wind parks such as at Altamont Pass
would be considered small and un-economic by modern wind power development
standards.

As aesthetics and durability became more important, turbines were placed atop
steel or reinforced concrete towers. Small generators are connected to the tower on
the ground, then the tower is raised into position. Larger generators are hoisted into
position atop the tower and there is a ladder or staircase inside the tower to allow
technicians to reach and maintain the generator. Originally wind generators were
built right next to where their power was needed. With the availability of long
distance electric power transmission, wind generators are now often on wind farms
in windy locations and huge ones are being built offshore, sometimes transmitting
power back to land using high voltage submarine cable. Since wind turbines are a
renewable means of generating electricity, they are being widely deployed, but
their cost is often subsidised by taxpayers, either directly or through renewable
energy credits. Much depends on the cost of alternative sources of electricity. Wind
generator cost per unit power has been decreasing by about four percent per year.

[edit]

Companies in wind turbine industry

World market for wind energy plants in 2003

• DeWind
• EMD A/S WindPRO software
package for project design and planning of
turbines
• Gamesa
• Garrad Hassan and Partners Ltd.
• General Electric, through its
subsidiary GE Energy
• Kenetech Corporation Bankrupt
• LM Glasfiber A/S Rotor blades
ranging from 13.4 to 61.5 m
• NEG Micon Merged with Vestas in
2004
• Nordex
• REpower up to 5 MW turbines
• Siemens Wind Power A/S (formerly
Bonus Energy A/S)
• Vestas Manufactures 200 kW to 4.5
MW turbines
• Friesian Enercon GmbH

[edit]

See also
• Altamont Pass
• Darrieus wind turbine
• Renewable energy
• Savonious wind turbine
• Tehachapi Pass
• Wind farm
• Wind power
• Windmill
[edit]

External links
Primarily technical:

• Windturbine analysis Personal website

explaining wind turbine theory and Darrieus
turbines in particular
• Wind and Hydro Power, turbine
basics+principle of operation
• How does it work? -- Danish Wind
Industry Organisation.
• Vertical axis turbines at the American
Wind Energy Association Web site

Business associations:

• European Wind Energy Association

(EWEA)
o Residential Wind Power Q&A
• British Wind Energy Association
• American Wind Energy Association
• Danish Wind Industry Association
• California Wind Energy Collaborative
(CWEC)
• The Canadian Wind Energy
Association
• The British Columbia Wind Energy
Association
• Windustry -- "How to" wind energy
information

Other:

• Links to articles about windpower

• Discussion forum for Wind and other
Renewable Energy sources

[edit]

References
 • Alan Wyatt, Electric Power:
Challenges and Choices, Book Press Ltd.,
Toronto, (1986) ISBN 0920650007
• On wind farms - On the relatively
small impact of wind farms on birds
• Iberica 2000.org - On the impact of
wind farms on birds.
• OtherPower.com - How to build a
wind turbine from scratch (including the
blade). Includes several designs.
• Scoraig Wind Electric -- Homebrew
wind turbines - courses, books and free
information. Lots of pics of hands on
construction.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine"