SME

2512: WIND TURBINE 1

1.0

Wind Turbine
Wind turbine or wind power developed as an alternative to fossil fuels, plenty and no
cost sources, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas
emissions during operation and uses little land to generate electricity.

2.0

History
Wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind or is called wind
energy. Wind turbine was developed from the windmills, which were to use for
agricultural industries. Later in years of researches and development, Scottish
academic Prof. James Blyth from Scotland was believed to be the first to built the
wind turbine in July 1887.

2.1

Invention Chronology
634-44M

: Persian was first to build a mill operated by wind and introduced the
system to Caliph Umar. Later, wind power was widely used to run
both millstones for grinding corn and to draw up water for
irrigation. The walls of the lower chamber were pierced by four
vents as to direct the wind to the sails and can increase its speed.

Figure 2.0: A millstone attached to

end of a wooden cylinder, standing
vertically in a tower open on the
northeast side to catch the wind.

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9th Century

: Windmill later developed by Islamic Engineers to improve husking,

paper, textile and sugarcane industries in Iran, Afghanistan and
Pakistan. By manipulating the wind speed at that times (reaching
120km/hour) the windmills have been constructed perpendiculr to
the wind flow to maximize output. Generally constructed out of
clay, straw and wood.

Figure 2.1: Each of the windmills consists of

8 rotating chambers with each chamber
housing 6 vertical blades. Once the chambers
begin rotating by the force of the wind, it
results in the turning of the windmills main
axle which was in turn is connected to grain
grinders.

1887-88

: Charles F. Brush produced electricity using a wind powered

generator for powered his house and laboratory.

Figure 2.2: It was 60 feet tall with a

diameter of 56 feet, weighed 80,000
pounds and had a 12kW dynamo.

1890

: Danish (scientist) and Poul la Cour (inventor) constructed wind

turbines to generate electricity, which was used to produce hydrogen
and oxygen by electrolysis and mixture of the two gases was stored
for use as a fuel.

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1904

: La Cour founded the Society of Wind Electricians was the first

discover that fast rotating wind turbines with fewer rotor blades
were the most efficient in generating electricity.

Mid-1920s

: Wind generators developed by company Parris-Dunn to produced 13kW.

1975

: NASA wind turbines project built thirteen experimental tubines

which paved the way for much of the technology used today.

Since then, wind turbines have increased greatly in size with the Enercon E-126
capable of delivering up to 7.5 MW.

2.2

Improvement

The windmill designs evoke the current wind turbines. From Middle Easterns
traditional mills technologies brought to Europe by Arabic Geographers. The ideas
continue with amount of researches including increasing the size of a wind turbines
blades; making the tower taller, allow a turbine to capture more wind, even at low
speeds. The basic design specification guaranteed endless power source and the
availability has been improved by drawings, dimensions, environmental factors,
ergonomic factors, aesthetic factors, cost, maintenance that will be needed, quality
and safety which will be further discuss in the next chapters. With the data it is
possible to develop commercial viability.

2.3

Types and Design

In the chronology, it was clearly shown that windmills divided to 2 types except for
the 9th centurys model that combined both. Current wind turbines in the market
divided into two types of rotation:
a. horizontal axis and
b. vertical axis.

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2.3.1 Horizontal Axis
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) has the main rotor shaft
and electrical generator at the top of a tower, and may be pointed into
or out of the wind. Most have a gearbox, which turns the slow rotation
of the blades into a quicker rotation that is more suitable to drive an
electrical generator.

Figure
2.3.1:
Featured in tall
mass
with
minimal numbers
of blades and
nacelle at the top.

Average wind speeds required for grid connected applications about of

5 meters per second or 11mph. Annual average wind speeds of 3 to 4
m/s or 7-9 mph may be adequate for non-connected electrical and
mechanical applications such as battery charging and water pumping.
In this report, HAWT will be the main focus instead of VAWT.

2.3.2 Vertical Axis

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) where the main rotor shaft is
set vertically and the main components are located at the base of the
turbine.

Figure 2.3.2:
The
blades
are
vertical
and consist of
two hubs.

SME 2512: WIND TURBINE 5

3.0

Components and Functionality

A horizontal wind turbine is consist of three (3) main components; Rotor,
Gear Box and Generator; to generate electricity through kinetic from the wind
energy.

Figure 3.0: For high power wind turbines, double-fed asynchronous generators are most
frequently used. The operating rotation speed can be varied somewhat, unlike when using
conventional asynchronous generators. Another concept uses synchronous generators. A grid
connection of synchronous generators is only possible via transformers, due to the fixed
rotation behavior.

3.1

Blades
a. The lifting style wind turbine blade. These are the most efficiently designed,
especially for capturing energy of strong, fast winds. Some European
companies actually manufacture a single blade turbine.
b. The drag style wind turbine blade, most popularly used for water mills, as seen
in the Old Dutch windmills. The blades are flattened plates, which catch the
wind. These are poorly designed for capturing the energy of heightened
winds.

3.2

Rotor

The rotor is Aerodynamics design to capture the maximum surface area of wind in
order to spin the most ergonomically. The blades are lightweight, durable and
corrosion-resistant material. The best are composites of fiberglass and reinforced
plastic.

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3.3

Gearbox

Magnifies or amplifies the energy output of the rotor. The gearbox situated directly
between the rotor and the generator. A rotor rotates the generator (which is protected
by a nacelle), as directed by the tail vane.

3.4

Generator

Generator produced electricity from the rotation of the rotor. It is comes in various
sizes, relative to the output you wish to generate. The nacelle is the housing or
encloses that seals and protects the generator and gearbox from the elements. It is
easily removed for maintenance of the wind.

SME 2512: WIND TURBINE 7

4.0

Product Specification

This chapter discusses further breakdown specification required for a horizontal wind
turbine.

4.1

Weight

For 1.5MW wind turbine, the tower is at 80 meters high, the rotor assembly weight is
22,000 kg, the nacelle, which contains the generator component weight, is 52,000 kg.
The concrete base tower is constructed using 26,000 kg of reinforcing and contains
190 m3 of concrete. The base is 15 m diameter and 2.4 m thick near the center.

4.2

Ergonomic

A horizontal wind turbine does not have any direct connection with human. So the
ergonomic aspect of the built only focused on the rotor blades to harvest more wind.
The ratio between the speed of the blade tips and the speed of the wind is called tip
speed ratio. High efficiency 3-blade-turbines has tip speed/wind speed ratios of 6 to 7.
Modern wind turbines are designed to spin at varying speeds. 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 speed and torque at which a wind turbine rotates must be controlled for
several reasons:

To optimize the aerodynamic efficiency of the rotor in light winds.

To keep the generator within its speed and torque limits.

To keep the rotor and hub within centrifugal force limits. The centrifugal force
from the spinning rotors increases as the square of the rotation speed, which
makes this structure sensitive to over speed.

To keep the rotor and tower within strength limits. Because the power of the
wind increases as the cube of the wind speed, turbines have to be built to
survive much higher wind loads (such as gusts of wind) than those from which

WIND TURBINE 8

they can practically generate power. Since the blades generate more torsion
and vertical forces (putting far greater stress on the tower and nacelle due to
the tendency of the rotor to precess and nutate) when they are producing
torque, most wind turbines have ways of reducing torque in high winds.

To enable maintenance. Since 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.

To reduce noise. 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, the tip speed can be limited to
approximately 60 m/s (200 ft/s).

Noise generated from the rotor blades is the only impact to human. It is generally
understood that noise increases with higher blade tip speeds. To increase tip speed
without increasing noise would allow reduction the torque into the gearbox and
generator and reduce overall structural loads, thereby reducing cost. The reduction of
noise is linked to the detailed aerodynamics of the blades, especially factors that
reduce abrupt stalling. The inability to predict stall restricts the development of
aggressive aerodynamic concepts. The wind turbine generates 150dB that is
equivalent to a lawn motor and recommended to be built at least 500m away from any
residential.

4.3

Material

Figure 4.0:Material of the horizontal blade.

SME 2512: WIND TURBINE 9

4.3.1 Tower & Foundation
Tubular construction of concrete or steel is used. An alternative to this
is the lattice tower form. Its manufactured in several individual tower
section connected using stress-reducing L-flanges.
4.3.2 Nacella
Cover housing that houses all the generating components in a wind
turbine including generator, gearbox, drive train and brake assembly.
4.3.3 Rotor blades
The rotor blades are mainly made of glass fibre or carbon reinforced
plastics (GRP, CFRP). The blade profile is similar to an aeroplane
wing.
4.4

Safety

Operation of any utility-scale energy conversion system presents safety hazards. Wind
turbines do not consume fuel or produce pollution during normal operation, but still
have hazards associated with their operation.
If a turbine's brake fails, the turbine can spin freely until it disintegrates or catches
fire. This is rare and the odds of a major turbine fire or disintegration is in the order of
0.001% over the 20-25 year lifespan of a modern wind turbine. Some turbine nacelle
fires cannot be extinguished because of their height, and are sometimes left to burn
themselves out. In such cases they generate toxic fumes and can cause secondary fires
below. However, newer wind turbines are built with automatic fire extinguishing
systems similar to those provided for jet aircraft engines.
During winter ice may form on turbine blades and subsequently be thrown off during
operation. This is a potential safety hazard, and has led to localized shutdowns of
turbines. Modern turbines can detect ice formation and excess vibration during
operations, and are shut down automatically. Electronic controllers and safety subsystems monitor many different aspects of the turbine, generator, tower, and
environment to determine if the turbine is operating in a safe manner within
prescribed limits. These systems can temporarily shut down the turbine due to high

WIND TURBINE 10

wind, ice, electrical load imbalance, vibration, and other problems. Recurring or
significant problems cause a system lockout and notify an engineer for inspection and
repair. In addition, most systems include multiple passive safety systems that stop
operation even if the electronic controller fails.

4.5

Product Reliability

The lifespan of a modern turbine is around 120,000 hours or 20-25 years, however,
they are not maintenance free. As they contain moving components, some parts will
need to be replaced during their working life. Throughout research, the cost of
maintenance and parts replacement is around the 1-cent USD/AU per kWh or 1.5 to 2
percent annually of the original turbine cost.
The components of a wind turbine are typically designed to remain operational for
twenty years. It would be quite easy, and hardly any more expensive to design and
build some of the components to remain operational for far longer. However, because
most of the major components would be very expensive to build for a longer life span,
it would be a waste to have a whole turbine standing idle because one part failed years
earlier than the rest.
By agreeing on a twenty-year design lifetime, an economic compromise is met which
guides the engineers who develop new components for wind turbines. When planning
new components they know that it will be expected to work reliably for two decades.
They have to show that their planned components will have little chance of failing
within twenty years of installation.
The design lifetime of a component compared to its actual lifetime means that a wind
turbine can last far longer than originally planned. How long it will continue working
depends on the build quality of all of the turbine components, how well put together
and the local environmental conditions. Environment isn't just the wind factors, like
how much turbulence is experienced at the site, but also the air density, average
humidity, even seismic factors.
An offshore turbine may last longer, simply due to the fact that with no obstacles to
the wind there is lower turbulence at sea. This would in turn result in lower
maintenance costs, but this would be balanced by the increased cost in accessing the
turbine to effect any maintenance.

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4.6

Production

Wind turbines for commercial electricity production usual range from 100 kilowatts
to 5 megawatts. At the time of writing, the largest wind turbine in the world had a
rotor diameter of 126 m (390 feet) and the potential to generate enough electricity for
5000 households. For a 600 kW turbine, the average output is between 1.5 and 2
GW/h per year, depending on wind speed. For every kilowatt-hour of electricity
produced by wind energy or other green means, approximately 1.5 pounds of carbon
is prevented from going into the atmosphere if that electricity had been sourced from
coal fired power plants.

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5.0

Photos & Sketches

SME 2512: WIND TURBINE 13

6.0

Material & Production

1. Foundation
2. Tower
3. Nacelle
4. Rotor Blade
5. Hub
6. Transformer ( Dost not a part of wind turbine)

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