The Design and Study on the Automatic Pich-Control Mechanism of Small Sized Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

This study is motivated by the fact that most small-sized horizontal axis wind turbines (SHAWT) do not have the mechanism for pitch-angle adjustment due to their costs. They are designed to start turning at a low speed wind such that their rated angle of attach is quite small. This design has at least two disadvantages: (1) when the wind speed is high, the efficiency of the turbine is low compared to that with larger rated angle of attach; (2) when the wind speed exceeds the rated wind speed, the furling mechanism greatly reduces the efficiency of the turbine compared to that with pitch angle control which can induce stall to protect the blades and keep the efficiency at a reasonable level. Therefore, in this study, a simple, durable, and functional mechanism for automatic pitch-angle control will be designed and analyzed. The methods used for this study include the blade design, the design of automatic control mechanism for adjustable pitch-angle, the analysis of the performance of the blade-mechanism coupled system, prototype fabrication, and the analysis of the measurement data in the experiments. These are for the confirmation of the expected performance being carried out. One journal paper and one conference paper are expected from this study. In addition, one filed IP application for the three countries, Taiwan, China, and USA, is also expected. Finally, the technology developed in this study will be transferred to the interested company for commercializing the product. The analysis methodology is expected to be a tool for innovation design in wind turbines and a promotion for the domestic industry to compete in the global market.

Project ID:PB9907-10763
External Project ID:NSC99-2221-E182-047