Aerodynamic Design of a Horizontal Axis Micro Wind Turbine Blade Using NACA 4412 Profile

Abstract

Wind turbine blade is a key element to convert wind energy in to mechanical power. This work presents functional design and aerodynamic design of an 800mm long blade of a 600W horizontal axis micro wind turbine using NACA4412 profile. Functional design of blade is carried out by considering use of electrical appliances to meet need of a rural house for low wind speed region. Various theories are available and used by designers for blade design. The chord and twist angle distributions of the preliminary blade design are determined. The preliminary blade design does not necessarily provide the best power performance under practical operation conditions and needs to follow further modifications and calculations. Also, a reasonable compromise between high efficiency and good staring is expected. The optimization with the objective of enhancement of power performance and low speed starting behavior is carried out. Though, hub region contributes little to overall power production, its optimization plays important role for good starting and low wind performance. In this work analysis is carried out for coefficient of performance of the blade and for starting behavior of the wind turbine blade. MATLAB programming is developed for the blades. The power coefficients curves are drawn for the optimized wind turbine.