Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access

Abstract

Optimization, Design, and Construction of Field Test Prototypes of Adaptive Hybrid Darrieus Turbine

Palanisamy Mohan Kumar, Subramani Anbazhagan, Narasimalu Srikanth and Teik-Cheng Lim

The current study presents the experimental optimization, design and construction of vertical axis Darrieus type micro wind turbine. Four turbines of different topology are fabricated representing the various operating configurations of novel adaptive Darrieus wind turbine developed to enhance the low wind speed performance of conventional straight bladed Giromill. As the Savonius rotor is integrated into Darrieus rotor, an optimized Savonius rotor diameter is achieved through wind tunnel test. The design, component selection and mechanical arrangement of scaled prototype intended for field test is discussed in detail. Gravity based tower is designed for the deployment of turbines and to withstand high wind conditions is presented along with structural analysis. The tower can be raised or lowered swiftly based on the wind conditions. Arduino platform based remote monitoring system is devised with web interface for data visualization and data storage. The study is intended to provide the design knowledge on small vertical axis micro wind turbines and shed additional light on sensor and data acquisition.