Chapter 4

OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

Exhaustive literature review on the development of co-axial series rotor wind turbine is
carried out. Based on the gaps in the open literature, following objectives of the research
work to be carried out are listed.

3. 1 Objectives

4. To design and develop a cost effective, simple and reliable co-axial series-rotor
micro wind turbine to charge stand-alone battery system,
5. To simulate the air flow through co-axial series-rotor wind turbines using
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD software),
6. To test the multi-rotor wind turbine system in the field as per International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, for different rotor combinations,
7. To plot power curves for different rotor combinations.

3. 2 Methodology

The procedure for the development of unidirectional co-axial series rotor micro wind
turbine is explained here.

• To decide system specifications such power output, rotor diameter, number of rotors
and layout
• Design and development of blades of micro wind turbine.

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 • To carry out the analysis of wind turbine blade through a Blade Element Momentum
simulation software QBlade
• To carry out the Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis of co-axial series rotor
wind turbine system through ANSYS Fluent software.
• Development of experimental set-up and its installation in the field
• Field Testing as per International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) norms 61400-
12 in order to analyze the performance of unidirectional co-axial series rotor micro
wind turbine

5. 1 Specifications of wind turbine system

Following are the important specifications for unidirectional co-axial series rotor micro
wind turbine,
a. Power output capacity
b. Rated wind speed
c. Functional design
d. System layout
a. Power output capacity
The first step in the wind turbine design is to decide the power generation capacity. The
power generating capacity of the wind turbine is based on the purpose of wind turbine.
For domestic wind turbines power output may vary from a few watts to few kilowatts.
For grid connections, a wind turbine is to be built from kW to MW range. The wind
turbine having a power output capacity of 1 kW is taken up for the research work.

b. Rated wind speed

As power is proportional to the square of the rotor diameter and the cube of the wind
velocity, it is important to decide the wind velocity at which the said wind turbine will
generate the rated power. This wind speed is termed at rated wind speed. Hence the next
stage in the wind turbine design is the selection of the rated wind speed, which is of the
order of 12 m/s.

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c. Functional design
For a rated wind speed and rated wind power output capacity the wind turbine the rotor
diameter is calculated for a single rotor wind turbine. As this research work is related to
unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind first task is to select a number of rotors.
The power produced by the wind turbine is the total of power produced by a number of
rotors. Hence, each rotor should be designed to produce 1/n times the rated power. The
said wind turbine consists of an inclined shaft. The power produced by the normal rotor
(having horizontal axis) is greater than the inclined rotor wind turbine. Hence, this effect
is included in the calculation of rotor diameter. Four numbers of rotors are considered
here to generate the rated power at the rated wind speed.
d. System layout
System layout consists of selection of few things as described following,
• Position of generator: at one end or between the rotors.
• Locations of the rotors: upwind and downwind rotors
• Gearless or geared drive

5. 2 Design and development of blade

Following steps are followed to design and develop blade for micro wind turbine,

a. Blade design
b. CAD modeling of blade
c. Manufacturing wooden pattern
d. Development of mould
e. Manufacturing of blades
a. Blade design
Blade is a key element of wind turbine which converts kinetic energy of the wind into
useful mechanical energy. In order to obtain satisfactory performance from the wind
turbine, it is important to develop wind turbine rotor models having high power
coefficients. Following are the important steps involved in blade design,

i. Selection of airfoil shape

ii. Selection of tip speed ratio

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 iii. Selection of number of blades
iv. Selection of aerodynamic theory for blade design
v. To find blade parameters such as setting angle, chord length, and chord thickness.
vi. Simulation using open source QBlade software
The QBlade software is based on the blade element momentum theory. The time required
for simulation through this software is less compare to CFD analysis. The following steps
are to be followed in QBlade analysis,
• Defining airfoil shape
• Determining Cl/Cd performance
• Define number of blades, setting angle and chord width
• Run the simulations
• Determine performance of the rotor

b. CAD Modeling of the blade

The CAD modeling of the blade is prepared by means of modeling software CATIA. The
blade shape is depending on the airfoil used and twisting of the blade. The blade consists
of different setting angles at different elements. The airfoil shape is locus of a number of
points above and below the mean camber line. The rectangular section is considered at
the root. The airfoil shapes at all locations along the blade length are prepared and joined
to form the blade geometry.

c. Manufacturing wooden pattern

Wooden pattern is to be manufactured for mould development. During the pattern
making process it is important to develop a blade with correct airfoil shapes. The airfoils
at different sections are cut in the thin metal sheet for inspection and confirmation.

d. Development of mould
A mould is prepared in two halves to manufacture wind turbine blades of a required
shape from glass fiber reinforced polymer. Foam is used inside the blade to reduce the
wight of the blade. Another mould is preapared to make uniform foam shapes for all
blades.

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e. Manufacturing of blade
Wood, metals, Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP), Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Polymer (CFRP), Natural Fiber Reinforced Polymer (NFRP) and nanocomposites are the
major materials used in the manufacturing of small wind turbine blades. The advantage of
composite materials is that they offer highest values of strength to weight ratio and
stiffness to weight ratio, which meet specific requirement of wind turbine blades. The
fatigue strength of the fiberglass is much more than conventional metals. GFRP has
fatigue strength of 140 MPa, many times greater than that of weld-able aluminum as 17
MPa at 107 cycles. Its use in the area with high snowfall and rainfall is highly beneficial.
High stiffness to weight ratio and dimensional stability of the glass fiber reinforced
composite makes it a suitable material for wind turbine blades. [ASM 2001]
Hence, for the blade manufacturing glass fiber reinforced polymer is selected. Glass fiber
reinforced polymer offers following advantages:
• Specific strength and stiffness is greater than wood and metals
• High permeability than any other fibers
• Cheaper among all composites
• Chemically inert
• Can be formed into intricate shape
• Good dimensional stability
Few methods such as hand lap process, vacuum method, etc. are available to manufacture
composite material blades. The hand lay-up process is the simplest and oldest of the
fabrication processes for glass fiber reinforced polymer used for low-volume production.
A pigmented gel coat is first sprayed onto the mold for a high-quality surface. When the
gel coat gets cured, glass reinforcing mat and/or woven roving is placed on the mould,
and the catalyzed resin is poured, brushed or sprayed on. Manual rolling then removes
entrapped air, densifies the glass fiber reinforced polymer and thoroughly wets the
reinforcement with the resin. Additional layers of mat or woven roving and resin are
added for thickness. The blades are then heated in oven for curing. Hand lay-up offers
low-cost tooling, simple processing and a wide range of part size potential. Design
changes are made easily. Parts have one finished surface and require secondary trimming.

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5. 3 Computational model for CFD analysis

The shaft inclination and rotors spacing are the important parameters in order to get fresh
air for each rotor of a unidirectional co-axial series rotor micro wind turbine. These
parameters are determined by performing numerical and experimental investigations.
Wind tunnel testing, full scale experiment in the field and smoke test are the various
experimental techniques. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is also being
performed for this purpose. This research work includes CFD analysis to study the flow
pattern for various combinations of shaft inclination and rotor spacing. After studying the
results obtained from the CFD analysis the field investigation is carried out for nine
combinations of unidirectional co-axial two series rotor micro wind turbine. Then for a
selected combination field tests are carried out for three and four rotors. The flow pattern
past over a wind turbine is simulated using CFD software.
Pre-processing and post-processing are the important stages in computational fluid
dynamics. Pre-processing involves mesh generation and converting the mesh into a
format that is to be understood by CFD solver. It is the most time consuming but
important task in order to get accurate results in the analysis. Second stage in
computational analysis is processing. The final stage in CFD analysis is the post-
processing. The following section describes the various steps involved in this analysis.
The CFD analysis carried out for unidirectional co-axial series rotors wind turbine
consists of the following steps,

a. Mesh creation
b. Define boundary conditions
c. Run simulations at different rotor spacing and shaft inclinations
d. Interpret the results

Mesh creation
The mesh creation is the most important step in CFD analysis. Accurate meshing and
quality of meshing play an important role for solver to obtain accurate results. In this
analysis tetrahedral elements are used for the meshing because of their ability to maintain
the geometry of the parts of the wind turbine. Good accuracy level tetrahedral meshes are
used for the Moving Referecne Frames (MRF) zone.

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The computational time increases with the increased number of nodes resident in the
mesh. There are three numerical methods used to discretize equations which are finite
volume method, finite element method and finite difference method. Finite volume
method is commonly used in computational software such as Fluent, CFX, STAR-CD,
etc. Finite volume and finite element method are easily formulated to allow for
unstructured meshes and also more flexible.
Moving reference frame
Generally the fluid flow equations are solved by solver in a stationary reference frame.
However, there are many problems which require the equations to be solved in a moving
reference frame. A problem of a rotating wind turbine rotor is solved with moving
reference frame. The moving reference plane modeling permits to model such problems
by activating moving reference frames in selected cell zones. When moving reference
frame activated, the equations of motion are modified to include the added acceleration
terms which occur due to transformation from the stationary to moving reference frame
[ANSYS 2009b].
Turbulent models
In CFD software, wind turbines are simulated using the turbulent flows. In general, the
turbulent numerical simulation technique consists of two major parts, as direct numerical
simulation and indirect numerical simulation. Direct numerical simulation is not suitable
for CFD as the entire range of spatial and temporal scales of the turbulence must be
resolved that requires a very small time step size. Among the standard, RNG and
Realizable k-ε models, realizable k-ε is selcted for this research work. These all models
have similar forms, with transport equations for k and ε . The important differences in
these three models are as follows,
• For the turbulent viscosity, the realizable k-ε model contains an alternative
formulation.
• A modified transport equation for the dissipation rate, ε, has been derived from
an exact equation for the transport of the mean-square vorticity fluctuation.

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The term ‘realizable’ means that the model satisfies certain mathematical constraints on
the Reynolds stresses, consistent with the physics of turbulent flows. Neither the standard
k-ε model nor the RNG k-ε model is realizable.
Both the realizable k-ε and RNG k-ε models have shown substantial improvements over
the standard k-ε model where the flow features include strong streamline curvature,
vortices, and rotation. The realizable k-ε model provides the best performance of all the
model versions for several validations of separated flows and flow with complex
secondary flow features.
The realizable k-ε model has been extensively validated for a wide range of flows,
including rotating homogeneous shear flows, free flows including jets and mixing layers,
channel and boundary layer flows, and separated flows. For all these cases, the
performance of the model has been found to be substantially better than that of the
standard k-ε model [ANSYS 2009a].

Boundary conditions
Bounday conditions used for simulation are listed below,
Simulation type : Transient simulation
Fluid material : Air
Flow type : Incompressible flow
Temperature : 300 K
Pressure : 101325 Pa
Wind speed : 8.4 m/s
CFD algorithm : Simple
Turbulent model : Realizable k-ε
Interpolating scheme : Gradient (Green-Gauss node based)
Momentum (first order upwind)
Turbulent kinetic energy (first order upwind)
Boundary condition : Velocity inlet and pressure outlet
Moving wall with no slip shear condition
Rotational motion relative to adjacent cell zone

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5. 4 Experimentation set-up

The power generated by wind turbine is depending on the wind velocity. Hence, field
testing of developed unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine is necessary to study
the power output performance of wind turbine at various wind speeds. The field test is
also necessary to observe the satisfactory operation in the field for developed wind
turbine.
The experimental set-up used in this research work consists of,
• Wind turbine systems,
• Battery storage,
• Measuring instruments,
• A data acquisition system,
• Testing site.
This section presents development of wind turbine system for experimentation,
specifications of measuring instrument and site selection for experimention.
a. Development of wind turbine system
Lattice tower and tubular tower, are often used for structures for installation of wind
turbines. For this work a lattice tower is preffered and used. Lattice towers are created by
connecting L-shaped steel angles through bolting. The manufacturing cost of lattice tower
is less than tubular sections. Also, the lattice tower can be transported to the field in
multiple small pieces. A lattice-structured tower of 18 m height is manufactured and
installed at the site. A platform of 1 × 1 m is created at the top for working comfortably.
The four people can work comfortably on top of tower. It is equipped with lifting
arrangement of 500 kg capacity for wind turbine installation. Some photos taken during
manufacturing and erection of tower are shown in Fig. 4.1.

b. Models of unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine system

Four various models considered for experimentation are listed below,
1. Wind turbine with a single rotor
2. Unidirectional co-axial two series rotors wind turbine with one upwind and one
downwind rotor with centrally mounted electrical generator.

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 3. Unidirectional co-axial three series rotors wind turbine with one upwind and two
downwind rotors. Electrical generator is mounted between upwind and downwind
rotors.
4. Unidirectional co-axial four series rotors wind turbine with two upwind and two
downwind rotors with centrally mounted electrical generator.

(a) Making foundation for tower erection (b) Erection of tower in process

(c) Turbine lifting arrangement (d) 18 m high lattice tower

Fig . 4.1 Erection of tower for field experiment

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c. Yawing mechanism with supporting structure
A yawing mechanism used in wind turbine is responsible for the orientation of wind
turbine rotor according to the wind direction. Two types of yawing systems available are;
active yaw and passive yaw. Active yaw system involves electronic control system and
used in medium and large size wind turbines. In small wind turbine system passive yaw
system is used. A yawing mechanism allows relative motion of the wind turbine with
respect to tower.

A yawing mechanism developed which can be easily mounted on the tower. It consists of
two arms as shown in Fig. 4.2. In order to perform experiments for three shaft
inclinations (200, 220 and 250) three wind turbine supporting structures are manufactured.
The required supporting structure is assembled on the two arms of yawing mechanisms
with the help of bolting arrangement. Each supporting structure consists of two bearings
at the end. The generator is mounted on the support structure. The rotor hub can be
mounted on shaft at specified locations to get required rotor spacing.

Fig . 4.2 Yawing mechanism with supporting structure

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d. Generator with charge controller

Permanent magnet generators are used in unidirectional coaxial series rotor wind turbine
to convert mechanical energy into electricity. The permanent magnet generator, generates
three phase power of varying voltage and rectified to DC. Four different generators are
used for four models. The generator shafts are specially extended on both ends in order to
connect upwind and downwind side’s shafts. The power generated is stored in batteries
through a charge controller as shown in Fig. 4.3. A charge controller is essential for a
wind turbine to control the voltage and current supply to the battery. The charge
controller stop charging a battery when a voltage exceeds a set limit and restart charging
when voltage drops below a set limit.

Fig . 4.3 Charge controller

e. Development of experimental facility
The wind turbine performance test is carried out as per the International Electrotechnical
Commission standards. IEC 61400 defines the standards for wind turbine generator
system to ensure consistency and accuracy in the measurement and analysis of power
performance by wind turbine generator systems. IEC 61400-12 is a part of IEC 61400
specifies a procedure for measuring the power performance characteristics of a wind
turbine generator system and applies to the testing of wind turbine generator system of all
types and sizes connected to the electrical power network. It describes the details such as
test conditions, test equipments, measurement procedure, etc. As per IEC standards
following parameters should be measured during the field testing of a wind turbine.

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 • Wind speed
• Wind direction
• Air density
• air pressure,
• air temperature and
• air humidity
• Power
• current and
• voltage
The schematic of experimental set up is prepared as per IEC Standards IEC 61400-12 for
small wind turbines as shown in Fig. 4.4.

Fig . 4.4 Schematic of experimental setup

The instruments used for the experimentation with their specifications are listed below,
Combined wind direction and wind speed sensor
This sensor consists of an anemometer for wind speed measurement and a tail vane
sensor for wind direction measurement. The specifications of combined wind direction
and wind speed sensor are as given in the Tables 4.1. The combined wind direction and
wind speed sensor used in experiment is shown in Fig. 4.5.

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 Table 4.1: Specifications of combined wind direction and wind speed sensor

Make and Model : Accel Systems, WIND-COMBO-1

Speed Sensor : Cup type anemometer
Range : 0 – 60 m/s
Accuracy : 2%
Output : 4 – 20 mA
Starting threshold : < 0.3 m/s
Direction Sensor Wind vane
Range : 00 - 3600
Accuracy : ± 10
Output : 4 – 20 mA

Fig . 4.5 Combined wind speed and wind direction sensor

Pressure sensor
A pressure sensor is used for atmospheric pressure measurement. The specifications of
pressure sensor used are as given in the Tables 4.2.

Table 4.2: Specifications of pressure sensor

Make and Model : Scan Electronics

Range : 600 – 1100 mbar
Accuracy : 0.5 %
Output : 4 – 20 mA

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Temperature – Humidity sensor
A combined temperature-humidity sensor is used for air temperature and air humidity
measurement. The specifications of combined temperature-humidity sensor are as given
in the Tables 4.3.
Table 4.3: Specifications of temperature-humidity sensor
Make and Model : ROTRONIC HygroFlex3
Temperature Sensor Pt100
Range : - 40 – 60 0C
Accuracy : ± 0.2 0C
Resolution : 0.1 0C
Output : 4 – 20 mA
Humidity Sensor ROTRONIC Hygromer IN-1
Range : 0 – 100 % rh
Accuracy : ± 0.2 % rh
Resolution : 1%
Output : 4 – 20 mA

Power transducer
In order to get wind turbine power output, two parameters: voltage and current are
measured. The specifications of voltage and current measuring transducers are as given in
the Tables 4.4.
Table 4.4: Specifications of power transducer
Make and Model : Kristech Automation
Current measurement instrument
Range : 0 – 30 A
Accuracy : 1%
Output : 4 – 20 mA
Voltage measurement instrument
Range : 0 – 60 V
Accuracy : 1%
Output : 4 – 20 mA

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Data acquisition system

A digital data acquisition system is used to collect measurement. The specifications of the
data acquisition system used for the experimentation are as given in Table 4.5. The data
acquisition system used for experimentation is shown in Fig. 4.4.

Table 4.5: Specifications of data acquisition system

Scan Electronics Systems
Make and Model :
Falcon 1600 DL
Scan rate : 125 millisecond per channel
Channels : 08
Types of Input : 4 – 20 mA DC linear
Accuracy : ±0.5 %
Range : DC mA linear 4.00 to 20.00
Supply Voltage : 230 VAC, 50Hz

Fig . 4.6 Data acquisition system

f. Selection of site for experimentation

A site with mean annual wind speed of 6.26 m/s is selected for the experimentation. This
site is located at Jamgaon, Dist-Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India. The latitude and
longitude of the experimentation site are 190 4.27’62” N, 740 31.40’ 54”E respectively.

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g. Specifications of developed wind turbine systems

The unidirectional co-axial series rotors wind turbine having two, three and four rotors
are developed. The specifications of the wind turbine models developed for field-testing
are given in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6: Specifications of unidirectional co-axial series rotors wind turbine

Wind turbine type : Unidirectional co-axial series rotors
wind turbine
Horizontal / vertical / inclined axis turbine : Inclined axis
Number of blades per rotor : 3
Blade material : GFRP
Rotor diameter : 1.25 m
Rated wind Speed : 12 m/s
Rated electrical power (four rotors) : 1 kW
Number of rotors : 2 / 3 /4
Blade airfoil type : NACA 4415
Fixed or variable pitch : Fixed
Tower type : Lattice
Tower height : 18 m

A unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine having two rotors installed for the field
experiment is shown in Fig. 4.7.

Fig . 4.7 Unidirectional co-axial two series rotor wind turbine system

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A unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine having three rotors installed for the field
experiment is shown in Fig. 4.8.

Fig . 4.8 Unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine having three rotors

A unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine having four rotors installed for the field
experiment is shown in Fig. 4.9.

Fig . 4.9 Unidirectional co-axial series rotor wind turbine having four rotors

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