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  • Windmills have been assisting mankind to convert the energy contained in wind to

  • many other useful forms for the last two thousand years.

  • Today's wind turbines are capable of converting a great amount of energy in

  • the wind into electricity.

  • This is due to the blades which are developed using state-of-the-art

  • aerodynamic analysis and the other performance-enhancing equipment.

  • In this video we will explore these different set of technology in a simple

  • yet scientific way.

  • First, let's get into its basic working

  • If the blowing wind can turn the wing, we will receive electricity from the

  • generator that is attached to it.

  • However, how does the blowing wind turn the wing ?

  • Let's have a close look at the blade.

  • The Blade has a lot of airfoil cross-sections consisting of different

  • sizes and shapes from the root to tip.

  • The simple airfoil technology makes the wind turbine blade turn.

  • That means that a lift force is produced when a fluid moves

  • over an airfoil.

  • This way the wind turbine achieves the basic rotation

  • we are accustomed to seeing.

  • Just as in a moving train

  • you experience things relatively, the moving wind turbine blade also

  • experiences the wind relatively.

  • For the moving blade the relative wind velocity is

  • as shown.

  • Therefore the wind turbine blade is positioned in a tilted manner

  • in order to align with the relative wind speed.

  • As the blade velocity increases to the tip the relative wind speed becomes more

  • inclined towards the tip.

  • This means that a continuous twist is given to the blade from the root to tip.

  • However this rotation cannot be directly coupled to a generator.

  • Because the wind turbine blades typically turn at a very low rate of rpm

  • due to the issues of the noise and mechanical strength.

  • Considering this low-speed rotation we cannot produce

  • any meaningful electricity frequency from a generator.

  • So before connecting to the generator the speed is increased in a gearbox.

  • The gearbox uses a planetary gear set arrangement

  • to achieve the high speed ratio.

  • A break also sits in the nacelle.

  • The function of the brake is to arrest wind blade rotation

  • during excessively windy conditions

  • Consequently the electricity that is

  • passed through the cables towards the base

  • where a step-up transformer is situated.

  • The wind turbine should face the wind

  • normally for maximum power extraction.

  • But the wind direction can change at any time.

  • A velocity sensor

  • on the top of the nacelle measures the wind speed and direction.

  • The deviation in the wind's direction

  • is sent to an electronic controller which in turn sends an appropriate signal to the

  • yawing mechanism to correct the error.

  • You can see how the yaw motors turn the nacelle.

  • Thus the wind turbine will

  • always be aligned with the wind direction:

  • According to the wind speed the relative velocity anggle

  • of the wind also changes.

  • A blade tilting mechanism tilts the blades

  • and guarantees a proper alignment of the blade with the relative velocity.

  • Thus the blades are always at the optimum angle of attack

  • with the relative wind flow.

  • Efficiency of the wind turbine is the really interesting topic.

  • To gain a good insight into wind turbine efficiency assume that you are measuring

  • wind speed at upstream and downstream over wind turbine.

  • You can note that the wind speed

  • at the downstream is much smaller than the upstream.

  • This is because the blades absorb

  • some kinetic energy from the wind.

  • The same amount of energy

  • is converted as mechanical power of the wind turbine.

  • It is interesting to note that

  • a wind turbine absorbs 100 percent of the available kinetic energy

  • only if the downstream wind speech becomes zero.

  • However zero wind speed at downstream is a physically impossible condition.

  • This cartoon animation clearly depicts this fact.

  • Zero downstream speed simply means

  • the whole flow is stock.

  • This physical reality of the flow demands a certain amount of exit wind speed.

  • That means that there is a theoretically maximum efficiency

  • a wind turbine can achieve.

  • This limit is known as Betz's limit.

  • Essentially it means that no wind turbine in the world can

  • ever cross the efficiency limit of 59.3 percent.

  • We hope you have now developed a good inside of the operation a wind turbines.

  • Thank You !

Windmills have been assisting mankind to convert the energy contained in wind to

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