STUDY AND DESIGN OF A HORIZONTAL AXIS – WIND TURBINE FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Abstract

The model of a horizontal – axis wind turbine was designed to generate 164 watts. Execution of design include the design of the rotor (3 m diameter) which is made of three wooden blades of a cambered airfoil section (NACA 4412 section), the blades were manufactured locally. The rotor is coupled to a small D.C. generator via a belt transmission system. The designs of the transmission subsystems (belts, shafts, and bearings) were achieved. The wind generator model is installed on a tower 3 meters above ground. A field test was carried out on a wind generator model at the Soba field owned by the Energy Research Institute. The output voltage and current were measured to determine the amount of electricity generated by the model. After the test, it was found that the efficiency of the model is low. This was mainly due to the decrease of the wind speed at the 3 meters above ground (the height of the tower). In addition to that, the locally available technologies restrict the possibilities of manufacturing blades with the airfoil shapes that can extracts power with high efficiency.