Polish students design small wind turbines - with success
Two wind turbines - with horizontal and vertical rotation axis, which can be used in various wind conditions - were developed last year by students from the GUST team, Lodz University of Technology. Their small wind turbines have been winning an international competition organized in the Netherlands for three years.
10 teams from Europe, Canada and Egypt participated in this year`s edition of the International Small Wind Turbine Contest organized by the NHL University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. The small wind turbine with a horizontal rotation axis designed by students from Lodz proved to be the best for the third time in a row.
"For three years, they have been designing small wind turbines that can be used in urban areas, These turbines can be installed on the roofs of single-family houses or apartment buildings in city centres. They will allow residents to produce our own electricity" - says Damian Kądrowski , coordinator of the student project GUST at the Institute of Turbomachinery, Lodz University of Technology.
Until now, students were building only turbines with a horizontal axis of rotation. This year, they also presented a turbine with a horizontal axis of rotation - H-rotor.
They have introduced many innovative structural changes to their "flagship" horizontal axis turbine design. "This year, we modernized the generator and used an innovative coil switching system in the generator, which allowed us to adjust the aerodynamic power to the electric power, thanks to which we could increase the efficiency of energy generation" - adds Kądrowski.
The students also developed their own aerodynamic profiles (geometry of the turbine blades). The blades were 3D printed, tested in a wind tunnel and numerical simulations were carried out.
Małgorzata Stępień from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, responsible for aerodynamics in the GUST project, admits that the majority of student teams base their designs on existing geometries, rework them and adapt them for their own needs. "This year, we went a step further and created our own geometry from scratch. It is our proprietary project" - she emphasises.
The turbine designed by students from Lodz has a structure similar to standard wind turbines, but on a much smaller scale. It consists of a rotor with three blades, with a special blow-off that prevents the air from decelerating and allows it to efficiently flows onto the blades. The wind causes the blades to rotate, and the mechanical power is transferred to a generator that generates electrical power.
Students also developed the brake and control panel of their own design. The device has a special fin that adjusts the turbine`s position depending on the direction of the wind.
The competition-winning turbine with a vertical axis of rotation can produce maximum power of approx. 600 W at a wind speed of 12 m/s. Stępień emphasises that the idea behind such small wind turbines is not to directly power electrical equipment. "They are used, for example, to charge batteries used to power devices such as computers, small fridges, bathroom heaters" - the student adds.
This year, the students developed their first turbine with vertical rotation axis. The two types of turbines are suitable for operation in completely different wind conditions. The advantage of turbines with horizontal rotation axis is that they produce more power and have greater efficiency, but also start at a higher wind speed. This is not the case with turbines with vertical rotation axis. These have lower maximum power, but they start to work with a weaker wind. When setting them up, it is necessary to take the wind conditions in the area into account.
"It may turn out that in the place where we want to use this technology, the wind speed is too low and gusts are too weak to move a classic turbine. In that case, wind turbine with vertical rotation axis is the ideal solution. It generates less power, but starts earlier - it needs less wind speed to start working" - explains Stępień.
Small wind turbines are already popular in the West, but students expect that they will also become more common in Poland. Combining them with photovoltaic technology allows to generate electricity at various weather conditions, regardless of the electrical grid.
Students acknowledge that they would like to commercialise their prototypes. They promise further improvements. They also want to try their hand in the prestigious Collegiate Wind Competition that will be organized in two years by the US Department of Energy.
The project is co-financed from funds awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the "Best of the Best! 2.0" programme.
The GUST (Generative Urban Small Turbine) team has been operating since 2015 as part of the Power Engineers Student Club of at the Institute of Turbomachinery, Lodz University of Technology. Its members are students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Faculty of Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Control Engineering, the Faculty of Technical Physics, Information Technology and Applied Mathematics, the Faculty of Management and Production Engineering, and the International Faculty of Engineering.
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