DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF VERTICAL

AXIS NATURE INSPIRED WIND TURBINE

A project report submitted by

Muhammad Ali (GL) (F16ME19)

Habib-Ur-Rehman (F16ME08)
Abdul Samad (F16ME154)

Supervisor:

Engr. Zain Ul Abdin Qureshi

 Submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of
Engineering in Mechanical

Faculty of Engineering

MEHRAN UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, JAMSHORO

November 2020

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that “Project/Thesis Report on, Fabrication of vertical axis nature
inspired wind tree turbine" is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the
degree of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering by the following students:

Muhammad Ali (GL) F16ME19

Habib-Ur-Rehman F16ME08
Abdul Samad F16ME154

______________________
Supervisor Co-Supervisor

Engr. Zain Ul Abdin Qureshi Dr. / Engr. DEF

____________________________________

(Chairman, Department of Mechanical Engineering)

Date: __________________

1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 
Firstly, Thanks to Almighty Allah for granting us strength and patience throughout this

work and on every endeavor that we have been through to reach at this stage. We express

appreciations to our supervisor Engr: Zain Ul Abdin Qureshi, Department of Mechanical

Engineering for his support, encouragement, and valuable suggestions throughout this

work. I would also like to thank my entire family, especially my Father, my Mother for

all their support and sacrifices that are a big part of my accomplishment and I am always

grateful to be surrounded by them. Their love and support are the sources that provide me

with the energy and courage. Also, all the support I had from all my friends and extended

family is much appreciated.

 Table of Contents
1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....................................................................................iii
2. ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................vi
3. List of tables.............................................................................................................vii
4. List of figures..............................................................................................................1
5. List of abbreviation....................................................................................................2
6. List of symbols............................................................................................................3
7. CHAPTER 1...............................................................................................................4
8. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................4
1.1 Wind Energy......................................................................................................5
1.2 Wind Turbine....................................................................................................6
1.3 Types of wind turbine........................................................................................7
1.3.1 Horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT):.....................................................7
1.3.2 Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)..........................................................8
1.4 TYPES OF VAWT ON THE BASIS OF BLADE SHAPE..............................9
1.4.1 Darrieus VAWT.............................................................................................9
1.4.2 Savonius VAWT..........................................................................................10
1.5 PROBLEM STATEMENT.............................................................................11
1.6 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.............................................................................12
CHATER 3....................................................................................................................13
LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................13
CHAPTER 3..................................................................................................................15
METHOLOGY..............................................................................................................15
3.1 Design of model (CAD Model):..................................................................15
3.2 Turbine Blade..............................................................................................17
3.3 ABS Material...............................................................................................19
3.4 3D Printing Technique.................................................................................19
3.5 Calculations.................................................................................................20
9. Chapter 4..................................................................................................................21
10. Results.......................................................................................................................21
11. CHAPTER 5.............................................................................................................26
12. CONCLUSION........................................................................................................26
4.1 FUTURE WORK AN RECOMMENDTIONS.......................................26
13. References.................................................................................................................27
 2. ABSTRACT

As we know that the population of world is increasing day by and world is

increasing with technologies and utilization of power production has increased

since now. Power production is based on fossil fuels burning in power plants to

produce power for sustainable life, but fossils fuels emit harmful gases that are

very dangerous for life that exist in the earth and for environment. According to

the current conditions Pakistan is the one of the countries having very low

electricity. The available power at any given time is substantially low below the

installed capacity and reaches its trough during winter when low water levels

reduce hydro power output. As we know that Air in the cities like Jamshoro have

high speed wind have a lot of kinetic energy, this energy is very useful to use to

produce electricity. Presently, the renewable energy sector consists primarily o

wind projects, which are being developed exclusively within the private sectors

Like jhampir. The purpose of this project is to design several wind turbines in a

tree shaped and get output power for household purpose.

 3. List of tables

Table 1 wind speed and torque.........................................................................................23

Table 2 Wind speed and value of Cp.................................................................................24
Table 3 Wind speed and power produced..........................................................................25

4. List of figures

Figure 1 Pakistan map of wind sped potential [4]...............................................................5

Figure 2 Jhampir wind power plant [5]...............................................................................6
Figure 3 Working of horizontal axis wind turbine [6].........................................................7
Figure 4 Working of Darrius VAWT [7].............................................................................9
Figure 5 Working of savonius VAWT [8].........................................................................10
Figure 6 Front view of model............................................................................................15
Figure 7 Top view of model..............................................................................................16
Figure 8 Base of model......................................................................................................16
Figure 9 Top view of blade................................................................................................17
Figure 10 Front view of turbine blade...............................................................................18
Figure 11 Torque value at 4m/s [ANSYS]...................................................................21
Figure 12 Value of torque at 5m/s [ANSYS]...................................................................22
Figure 13 Value of torque at 7m/s [ANSYS]...................................................................22
Figure 14 Value of torque at 9m/s [ANSYS]...................................................................23
Figure 15 Torque vs wind speed........................................................................................24
Figure 16 Power vs wind speed.........................................................................................25
 5. List of abbreviation

HAWT Horizontal axis wind turbine

VAWT Vertical axis wind turbine

ABS Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

PVC Poly vinyl chloride

 6. List of symbols

P Power Output

ρ Density of air

A Swept Area

Cp Co-efficient Of Power

V velocity

T Torque

w Angular velocity of blade

H Height of blade

D Diameter of blade
 7. CHAPTER 1

8. INTRODUCTION

According to the current circumstances Pakistan is the one of the countries having very
low electric energy. The obtainable power at any given time is substantially low below
the installed capacity and ranges its rack throughout winter when low water stages lessen
hydro power output. The energy produced by fossils fuel is increasing day by day
everywhere resulting in producing CO2 in our environment which is reason for serious
climate change in atmosphere of earth. More ever in Pakistan large number of
conventional sources are used to produce electric energy. These sources contain Natural
gas, Liquified gasoline, oil 85% while the contribution of coal, nuclear and hydroelectric
source 4.5%, 1.1%, and 9.2% respectively [ CITATION Placeholder3 \l 1033 ]. In
Pakistan demand for producing energy by renewable sources using solar and wind can be
fulfilled [ CITATION Placeholder3 \l 1033 ]. As we know that wind in the areas like
Jamshoro have high speed wind have high kinetic energy, this energy is renewable and
environment friend, it does not produce any by product like CO2 which is very harmful
for the environment, and this energy can be used to produce electric energy with no
harmful products. Presently, the renewable energy sector consists primarily wind
projects, which are being developed exclusively within the private sectors like Jamshoro
and wind speed in that area is very high and that can be reached 14m/s at its peak
[ CITATION Placeholder1 \l 1033 ]. The engineers are in seeking for manufacturing
turbines having capability to produce more and more power with simple design of blade
and having capability to withstand large windstorms and produce power even in less
wind, savonius turbine can solve this problem [ CITATION Placeholder2 \l 1033 ].

1.1 Wind Energy

Wind is air in flow, since it is moving air so it contain kinetic energy and Kinetic energy I
directly proportional to the wind speed, that is why wind energy is characterized by its
speed, it means more the wind speed more is the wind energy. Pakistan is gifted with
large wind energy potential. In Pakistan province Sindh and Balochistan has large
potential of wind power contributing 7.653GW in Sindh and 5.456 In Balochistan
[ CITATION Placeholder1 \l 1033 ] . The wind speed in cities of Sindh is relatively high as
compared to other cities even the speed can reach at 14m/s at its peaks [ CITATION
Placeholder1 \l 1033 ]. Wind speed vary with the altitudes, wind speed in Pakistan at 10 m
height by global atlas is given by figure 1

Figure 1 Pakistan map of wind sped potential [CITATION Placeholder4 \l 1033 ]

1.2 Wind Turbine

Wind turbine is a power producing device which extract kinetic energy of wind into
electrical energy, when wind speed strikes on blades that are attached with generator of
turbine, blades rotates due to lift and drag force and rotates and generator produces
electrical energy from mechanical energy. Generally, wind turbines contain nacelle and
tower. Nacelle of a turbines contains blade, shaft, hub, gear transmission, generator, yaw
mechanism, pitch control. Blade is main part of turbine it is attached with hub when air
strikes in blades, the blades rotates and that rotation is few RPMs but gear transmission
step up the rotation by a shaft and that shaft is connected to the generator, and because of
high RPM that produces in gear transmission box it produces power and that power is
transmitted to grids and so on. The purpose of yaw mechanism is to direct the blades
toward the wind direction, yaw mechanism is used in horizontal axis wind turbines that
will be discussed in next section. There is numerous wind power plant in Pakistan. Wind
turbines are categories into many types on the bases of axis of rotation. In Sindh near
Jamshoro in jhampir wind plant was constructed having capacity of 1200 MW as given in
figure2

Figure 2 Jhampir wind power plant [CITATION Placeholder5 \l 1033 ]

1.3 Types of wind turbine

There are two types of wind turbine based on axis of rotation that are discussed in detail
in next section

1.3.1 Horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT):

In HAWT axis of rotation parallel to wind speed. Working principle of horizontal axis
wind turbine is that they operate on drag and lift force, drag force acts parallel to the axis
of rotation and lift force acts perpendicular to the axis of rotation as shown in figure 3

Figure 3 Working of horizontal axis wind turbine [CITATION Placeholder6 \l 1033 ]

1.3.2 Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)

In VAWT axis of rotation is perpendicular to the wind speed, Vertical axis wind turbines
use only one of the forces either drag force of lift force to operate. Normally HWAT are
used mostly because of its high swept area that can produce high energy and HAWT also
have high efficiency as compared to VAWT because of higher swept area when the wind
speed is high. But when wind speed is very high air is turbulent there is vibration that
reduces in power output. The HAWT require special type yaw mechanisms to change the
blades direction when direction of wind is changed. VAWT is not commercial used
because of low efficiency and designing blades over HAWT. The VAWTs can be used
when the speed is relatively low, and the type of turbines use air from all the direction
that is the main advantage that the VAWT are useful for producing electric energy.
1.4 TYPES OF VAWT ON THE BASIS OF BLADE SHAPE

There are 4 types of vertical axis wind turbine categories by their shapes and will be
discussed one by one.

 Darrieus
 Savonius
 Helical savonius

1.4.1 Darrieus VAWT

It is type of VAWT which rotates on lift force only as scene in figure 4

Figure 4 Working of Darrius VAWT [CITATION Placeholder7 \l 1033 ]

Its blades are just like horizontal axis wind turbines but in HAWT blades are parallel to
wind and in Darrius blades are vertically on wind speed.
 1.4.2 Savonius VAWT

The type of VAWT which works when drag force is strike on blades as working principle
is shown in figure 5

Figure 5 Working of savonius VAWT [CITATION Placeholder8 \l 1033 ]

Savonius blades are in a shape such a way that one part is made concave and other one
convex, when wind strikes on blades the air cause drag force on both the sides and makes
blade to rotate.

But force on the either side of blade are in opposite direction it means concave side
moves forward and other in reverse by concave that reduces the utilization factor of blade
and less energy will be extracted by the blade that reduces the efficiency of the turbine.

For our project we are going to use savonius helical, which is a type of savonius but
modified to extract more energy, also due to its swept area to extract wind and it is easy
to design and require less cost, it will be discussed later on.
1.5 PROBLEM STATEMENT

As we know that horizontal axis wind turbines use more power than vertical axis wind
turbines, but if we make project in which we use more than one turbine and connect them
by electric circuit to produce more power it will be better idea for modern problems of
low crisis of electric energies in our country Pakistan. Conventional wind turbine cannot
be installed close to each other that’s why they require large land area for installation and
HAWT need higher wind speed that’s why we are going to work on vertical axis wind
turbines due to its simple design and production of power in low speeds.
1.6 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

 To design the turbine helical savonius blade having three blades by using solid
work software.
 To design the turbine helical savonius blade having three blades by using solid
work software.
 To assemble the parts to make tree wind turbine.
 CHATER 3

LITERATURE REVIEW

F. Thonniben, M. Marnett, B. Roidl, and W. Schroder

Since betz’s limits states that maximum energy that can be extracted by any wind turbine
is limited which is 59.35% but this value is only valid for Horizontal Axis wind turbine,
but this value is not applicable for vertical axis wind turbine. In the case of vertical axis
turbine this value can be extended but vertical axis wind turbines are less efficient
[CITATION Placeholder9 \l 1033 ] VAWT is different from that of a HAWT due to its
more spatial character. This leads to a power output above the Betz limit for VAWTs.

A. R. Jha

Vertical axis wind turbines are best for small load like communication towers and can be
used for larger scale energy production, but the material and design are quite difficult
[CITATION Placeholder10 \l 1033 ]

K. Pope, I. Dincer, G.F. Naterer

Horizontal axis wind turbine are more efficient and produce more power when the wind
speed is high but when the speed gets very large turbulence is produced in air that causes
the lower efficiency of wind turbine while vertical axis wind turbines do not possess
these problems, on the other hand when the wind speed is very low the size and weight of
horizontal axis wind turbines are shut off and do not produce power but, vertical axis
wind turbines can produce when wind is relatively low as HAWT cannot [CITATION
Placeholder11 \l 1033 ]

Mohammed Hadi Ali

In savonius turbines rotates when drag force strike the blades but the blades are made
such a way that when one part is concave to the air other one is convex and in that
convex part the wind slides through convex shape and less impact of force produced than
concave part so that difference influences the efficiency of turbine [CITATION
Placeholder12 \l 1033 ]

Frederikus Wenehenubuna , Andy Saputraa , Hadi Sutantoa

In this research paper savonius blades were testified according to number of blades at the
speed of 7 m/s and three blade has highest tip speed ratio, since tip speed ratio is directly
related to rotational speed as a result of wind turbine and four blades savonius turbine has

high torque as compared with two and three blades [CITATION

Placeholder13 \l 1033 ]
 CHAPTER 3

METHOLOGY

3.1 Design of model (CAD Model):

The model of project is made by using solid works, and this structure contains pipes of
different lengths and diameter of 1 inch. PVC pipes that is used in water piping systems
are used in our project, from the base two pipes are 21 ich in height are made opposite to
one another and other two 17 inch height opposite to on another, and that are connected
by elbow to other four flat pipes of 3 inch and further elbows are added to pipes of 3, 6,
9, 12 inches height and these are connected by turbines, the purpose of these different
angle is when wind strikes one turbine wind will not loss to the other one that is
oppositely built, as given in figure 6, figure 7 and figure 8.

Figure 6 Front view of model

Figure 7 Top view of model

Figure 8 Base of model

As seen in fig 7 that is our main body which contain a savonius helical blade that is 3D
Printed by 3D printer of ABS material further details will be discussed later.

3.2 Turbine Blade

Turbine blade that is used in this project is helical savonius blades having 13cm diameter
and 13cm height, the weight of each blade is 180gms as shown in figure 9 and figure 10.

Figure 9 Top view of blade

 Figure 10 Front view of turbine blade

After designing in solid works our next step is to fabricate the blade in physical form by
using 3D printer, the material of fabrication we are going to use is ABS.
 3.3 ABS Material

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene is a thermoplastic material which has glass transition

temperature of 105C, it has no true melting point and it is only because of its amorphous
nature of plastic. ABS material is made by polymerization process by styrene and
acrylonitrile with presence of butadiene contributing about 15% to 34% of acrylonitrile,
5% to 25% of butadiene and 45% to 60% of styrene and having the properties of all these
three materials. Nitrile group gives material to form long chain, styrene material givens
the shining surface to this material and butadiene contributed withstand capability of
sustainability to withstand to low temperature. The temperature in Pakistan varies from
15C to 46C on average yearly, and ABS material can be used in a range of -20C to 80C
that’s why it is most useful plastic as compared to other plastic materials.

3.4 3D Printing Technique

3D printing technology is one of the modern technologies ever invented. It was invented
in 1981 by Japanese hideo kodama. 3D printing has function to fabricate models in
physical world by using its parts. 3D printer’s basic principle is on the bases of extrusion
process, but it is controlled, and fabrication is done by computerized. Once the model is
made by using any CAD software then it is commanded to print just like 2D printers. The
material is fed into chamber with some supporting material it is then heated into printer
heater to semi liquid and is sent to nozzle, from nozzle it comes out and make the object
by nozzle moving in X Y Z direction. It is best for making prototypes.
 3.5 Calculations

Power output of turbines are given by formulae given eq 1.

1
P= × ρ × A × Cp× v 3 ------------------(1)
2

All parameters that will be used in power output are available except Cp coefficient of
power is given by eq 2

T ×w
CP=
1 ----------------------(2)
× ρ× A × H × v 3
2

To find out torque we will use Ansys software of different wind speed 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14
m/s and put in eq 2 to find out Cp and then power output.
 9. Chapter 4

10. Results

In this chapter all the results that were found by our project will be listed one by one, so
first of al we will find the torque from Ansys Software and by using software we will find
value of Cp, this Cp value will be used in the power calculations. As we know that our
project blade is of very small dimensions that can not be tested in wind tunnel, so that
why we will assume our angular velocity that is reasonably assumed. The Ansys software
calculation are given in the figure 11, figure 12, figure 13 and figure 14, further list will
be given letter for calculations.

Figure 11 Torque value at 4m/s and 20 rad/s [ANSYS]

Figure 12 Value of torque at 5m/s and 21 rad/s [ANSYS]

Figure 13 Value of torque at 7m/s and 22 rad/s [ANSYS]

 Figure 14 Value of torque at 9m/s and 23 rad/s [ANSYS]

The value that are found from Ansys software are given in Table 1

Table 1 wind speed and torque

Wind speed [m/s] Torque [N.m] w [rad/s]

4 0.0009 20
5 0.0022 21
7 0.0028 22
9 0.0079 23
 Moment of Force (N.m) TORQUE
0.04
0.03
0.02 Power Output

0.01
0
4 5 7 9 12 14
Wind Speed (m/s)

Figure 15 Torque vs wind speed

Form the value Cp can be found from equation 2

T ×w
CP=
1
× ρ× A × H × v 3
2
Table 2 Wind speed and value of Cp

Wind speed [m/s] Cp

4 0.027
5 0.089
7 0.0173
9 0.0085

The power output will be by the equation 1

1
P= × ρ × A × Cp× v 3
2

A=D×H

A = 0.13 ×0.13 = 0.0169

 Table 3 Wind speed and power produced

Wind speed [m/s] Power output [W]

4 15.2
5 30
7 52
9 152

160

140

120
Power Output (W)

100

80

60 Power Output (W)

40

20

0
4 5 7 9
Wind Speed (m/s)

Figure 16 Power vs wind speed

 11. CHAPTER 5

12. CONCLUSION

Since the diameter of our blade is small as compared to conventional blades that are used
in conventional turbines, so torque produced by blades is low that by utilization of wind
energy is very low hence power produced is low as compared to conventional turbines

4.1FUTURE WORK AN RECOMMENDTIONS

To increase the power gearing system should be installed to increase rotor speed as it will
produce more power as increases its speed. Blade size is lower so that utilization of wind
energy is less so in the future it should increase to produce more rotation and power.

13. References
[1] M. A. U. M. m. U. K. Khanji harijan, "Assessment of centralized grid connected
wind power cost in coastal area of Pakistan," Renewable Energy, vol. 34, no. 2, pp.
369-373, 2009.
[2] G. S. K. Z. A. M. Mazhar H. Baloch, "Current scenario of the wind energy in
Pakistan challenges and future," Energy Reports, no. 2, pp. 201-210, 2016.
[3] M. A. M.ZEMAMOU, "Review of savonius wind turbine design and performance,"
International Conference on Power and Energy Systems Engineering, vol. 4, no.
141, pp. 383-383, 2017.
[4] "Atlas," 12 sep 2020. [Online]. Available: https://globalwindatlas.info/area/Pakistan.
[5] "Express tribune," [Online]. Available: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1701048/2-
jhimpir-project-starts-producing-wind-energy.
[6] ”. C. A. T. (. “Lift and Drag. [Online]. Available:
http://people.bu.edu/dew11/liftanddrag.html.
[7] M. Ragheb, "VAWT," in Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, 2015.
[8] M. H. Ali, "Experimental Comparison Study for Savonius Wind Turbine of Two &
Three blades at low wind," International Journal of Modern Engineering Research ,
vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 2078-2986, 2013.
[9] M. M. B. R. a. W. S. F. Thonniben, "A numerical analysis to evaluate Betz's Law
for vertical axis wind turbines," Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 753, no.
02, p. 09, 2016.
[10] A. R. Jha, Wind turbine technology, Boca Raton: Fla.: CRC Press, 2011.
[11] I. D. a. G. N. K. Pope, "Renewable energy," Energy and exergy efficiency
comparison of horizontal, vol. 9, no. 35, p. 2102–2113, 2010.
[12] M. H. Ali, "Experimental Comparison Study for Savonius Wind," International
Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER), vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 2978-2986 ,
2013.
[13] A. S. H. S. Frederikus Wenehenubuna, "An experimental study on the performance
of Savonius wind turbine," 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Energy
Engineering and Application, vol. 2, no. 68, p. 297 – 304, 2014.