Innovative blade shape for micro wind turbines
Résumé
This study reports the design and fabrication of innovative blades for a centimeter-scale propeller and the experimental testing of a wind harvester. A samara wing structure is taken as a model to optimize the aerodynamics at low Reynolds number. The performances of the 44 mm diameter horizontalaxis micro wind turbine are tested in two dedicated wind tunnels, with wind speeds from 1.2 m.s−1 to 8 m.s−1. The output electrical powers range from 50 µW to 80 mW, with a maximal overall efficiency of 17.5% for 4 m.s−1. It appears that this bioinspired prototype have better performances than almost all the previous studies on small-scale wind harvesters in a large wind speeds range, and gives hope to get even higher.
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