Preliminary Test on Cross Axis Type Wind Turbine

The dependence on fossil fuel for power generation has a significant negative impact on environmental damage. To reduce the environmental damage, the use of wind energy for power generation needs to be increased and improved. A new type of wind turbine which has been reported recently is a cross axis wind turbine which can be designed for use in high-rise urban buildings where wind condition is more favorable. A model of a cross axis wind turbine which has a rotor diameter of 70 cm and a height of 60 cm has been fabricated and preliminarily tested. The wind turbine model consists of five vertical blades and two horizontal blade arrangements each having five blades. The performance test was carried out at a constant wind speed. During the test, the blade pitch angle was varied from 20° to 60° and wind speed was varied from 5 m/s to 7 m/s. Analysis and evaluation results show that the output power and efficiency of the wind turbine are affected by the blade pitch angle. At wind speed of about 7 m/s, the estimated maximum power is 0.15 W and maximum efficiency of only 0.17% for which the pitch angle was about 60° and tip speed ratio about 0.35.