Darrieus wind turbine: Design, construction and testing
Abstract:
Abstract
Background: We needed to find a location to set up a permanent 2kW turbine for performance monitoring, and we decided to help out
our friend Scott. He desperately needed to save money on his electricity bill due to all his wild parties.
Design: An alternate design had to be approached, so we decided to construct a prototype 2kW Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)
using a straight blade Darrieus design. The Darrieus vertical axis windmill was patented in 1927 by the French Inventor Georges
Darrieus and is a lesser known alternative to the typical 3 bladed HAWT
Construction: The Darrieus airfoil was traced onto 20 x 3 x 0.5 pieces of chipboard and cut to shape with a jig-saw and a rasp.
Each piece of chip-board was drilled, then glued together using two long threaded rods for alignment. Measuring and cutting took
several hours to complete, but was well worth the effort
Testing: At 65km/hr the turbine was really going!!! I was sort of hesitant to stick my head out of the window at this speed and have a
look, so I wound up the window. The load was applied and we were able to generate a few hundred watts for a several seconds then
there was a big WOOSHHHHH and the blade came flying off into some poor blokes paddock.
Keywords: Wind power, Wind turbine construction, Darrieus wind turbine, Scotty s hippie ranch
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