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    Rotor - Wind Collector: Ian Woofenden

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    sharmasanjiv
    The document discusses wind turbines and how the size of the rotor, or swept area that collects the wind, determines how much energy a turbine can capture. A larger rotor has a greater swept area and can capture more energy from the wind. Understanding the relationship between rotor size and energy output can help determine the appropriate turbine size for a given application.

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    Rotor - Wind Collector: Ian Woofenden

    Uploaded by

    sharmasanjiv
    76 views1 page
    The document discusses wind turbines and how the size of the rotor, or swept area that collects the wind, determines how much energy a turbine can capture. A larger rotor has a greater swept area and can capture more energy from the wind. Understanding the relationship between rotor size and energy output can help determine the appropriate turbine size for a given application.

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    Rotor Power

    Original Title

    Rotor Power

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    The document discusses wind turbines and how the size of the rotor, or swept area that collects the wind, determines how much energy a turbine can capture. A larger rotor has a greater swept area and can capture more energy from the wind. Understanding the relationship between rotor size and energy output can help determine the appropriate turbine size for a given application.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    76 views1 page

    Rotor - Wind Collector: Ian Woofenden

    Uploaded by

    sharmasanjiv
    The document discusses wind turbines and how the size of the rotor, or swept area that collects the wind, determines how much energy a turbine can capture. A larger rotor has a greater swept area and can capture more energy from the wind. Understanding the relationship between rotor size and energy output can help determine the appropriate turbine size for a given application.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    word power

    Rotor
    Wind Collector
    Ian Woofenden
    2005 Ian Woofenden

    Derivation: Contraction of rotator from Latin rota, wheel. example, just adding 1 foot to a 10-foot blade will increase
    The rotor of a wind generator is the blades and hubthe the swept area by 20 percent.
    visible part that rotates. (The moving part of the alternator The formula for the area of a circle is pi (roughly 3.14)
    is also called a rotor, but thats not what Im talking about multiplied by the radius squared. So a 6-foot-diameter
    here.) The blades travel around the hub, describing a circle rotor sweeps about 28 square feet (3 x 3 x 3.14). Double the
    known as the swept area. Just as the area of a solar-electric diameter to 12 feet and the swept area quadruples to about
    or solar hot water panel is what collects the suns energy, 113 square feet (6 x 6 x 3.14). Double it again and the swept
    the swept area of a wind turbine is its collector. area will quadruple again.
    A wind generators blades take the horizontal motion Why is this important? A small collector will gather
    of the wind and translate it into rotary motion to drive the a small amount of energy; a larger collector will gather
    more. Just as two, 100-watt PV modules will generate twice
    as much electricity as one, doubling your swept area will
    roughly double the energy into your batteries or onto the
    grid, all other things being equal.
    Understanding how to choose the right size wind
    generator for a given application is difficult. Wind nerds
    Diameter argue ad nauseam about average wind speed, wind
    distribution, efficiency, capacity factor, and other techie
    Radius
    Hub details. Looking at the collector size cuts through much of
    this technical fog.
    As wind-energy journalist Paul Gipe says, Nothing
    outside the wind itselfis more important in determining
    a wind machines capability of capturing the energy in
    the wind than the area swept by the rotor. So if youre
    Blade
    confused about what to expect from a wind generator, look
    first at the rotor size. Dont expect a small rotor to deliver a
    lot of energy. It takes a big collector to capture big energy.
    Swept Area
    See Mick Sagrillos wind-generator comparison article
    for the square footage of most home-scale North American
    generator. But dont assume more blades are better. Fewer wind generators, and Hugh Piggotts article on estimating
    blades generally mean higher rpm, which is what you want energy from the rotor size. Next column, Ill talk about how
    for generating electricity. More blades generally mean more a wind generator furls.
    torque, which is what you want for doing mechanical work,
    like pumping water. Most modern wind-electric generators Access
    have three bladesa good compromise between speed Ian Woofenden, PO Box 1001, Anacortes, WA 98221
    and rotor balance. Water-pumping windmills use a large [email protected]
    number of blades to do their low-speed work.
    Judging and comparing the size of different wind Apples & Oranges 2002: Choosing a Home-Sized Wind
    generators is not particularly intuitive. Even from a distance, Generator, by Mick Sagrillo in HP90, and on the HP Web
    its pretty easy to make a good guess about a persons height. site
    Basketball player Wilt Chamberlain was never confused
    with jockey Willie Shoemaker. But judging the swept area Estimating Wind Energy, by Hugh Piggott in HP102
    of a wind generator based on its blade length isnt as easy,
    and comparing different rotors is even more difficult. For

    104 home power 106 / april & may 2005

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