The Design and Construction of Compact Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Abstract

This research describes the design and construction of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT), in which 1 meter height and 1 meter diameter, for 3 different structures i.e. Savonius type, C type and Lenz type. Three types of VAWT are designed and simulated in SolidWorks® Flow simulation. In the simulation, each type of VAWT is studied for 4 models i.e. 2 blades, 3 blades, 4 blades and 6 blades for analyzing of the performance of VAWT blown by wind speed. The simulation results show that the 6 blades VAWTs are highest performance structures. Three types of VAWT then are constructed for studying the performance for electrical generation. The results of performance test, when weight ratios of constructed VAWTs are compared, show that the Lenz type VAWT started to rotate at the lowest wind speed of 0.6 m/s and generated the maximum voltage of 16.8 V when wind speed is of 8.43 m/s. But the Savonius type VAWT has the performance to weight ratio to generate electricity at charging level at the lowest wind speed of 6.87 m/s.