Abstract
This chapter considers the low wind speed performance of small turbines. Starting is the key issue because the wind speed needed to accelerate the blades from rest is higher than the speed at which they decelerate to rest as the wind dies away. Using the high angle lift and drag aerofoil data from Chap. 4, it is shown that a turbine designed only for optimal power extraction can have a low ratio of (aerodynamic) starting to drive train resistive torque, so that even a small resistance can have a significant effect on starting. In the absence of resistive torque, starting is independent of the number of blades. An analysis of starting is developed and shown to give good predictions of the acceleration of a rotor of a 500 W turbine. A Matlab program to calculate the starting time is presented.
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References
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Wood, D. (2011). Starting and Low Wind Speed Performance. In: Small Wind Turbines. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-175-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-175-2_6
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