Vertical Wind Turbine Design
The most common style of wind turbine design is the horizontal axis design, which means that the axis on which the blades are mounted is more or less parallel to the ground. This way the turbine points directly into the wind and the blades spin from the motion of the wind. A vertical axis wind turbine, however, has an axis perpendicular to the ground, and the blades spin around this axis, like a merry go round.
There are two main types of vertical wind turbine design: drag and lift types. Drag types are essentially like the air-speed indictators you may see at an airport; some kind of cup that captures the wind and is thus moved by it. They tend to move quite slowly, but are actually good for many uses such as pumping water and grinding grain. They generally do not move fast enough to generate electricity.
Lift-types use the principles of aerodynamics to increase the speed of the turbine dramatically. One of the most famous types of lift-type vertical axis wind turbine is the Darrieus Lift-Type Vertical-Axis Machine. There is a very large example of this still in operation on the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec.
What would your reaction be if your neighbor told you she was going to build a wind turbine? Pretty impressed? Or would you be against the idea? The truth is that it is not difficult to build wind turbines and many homeowners
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A wind turbine, whether a giant industrial scale model or a small residential unit, consists of the same basic parts. First of all, there are two main types of wind turbines: horizontal and vertical axis. You are likely
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Vertical wind turbines have not performed as well as their horizontal brothers. This is due to a variety of factors, the chief one being that the laws of aerodynamics favour the horizontal propeller model. After all, when was the last time you saw an aircraft with vertical blades? The speeds required for lift are not so easily captured by a vertical model, though the Darrieus design achieves it.
Also, the blades for a vertical axis machine need to be very long and therefore can not be easily raised as high as a horizontal axis turbine. This means they are more subject to ground air turbulence and wear out more quickly.
The wind capture devices of the future may encompass many odd shapes and designs we have not yet seen. Best bet is to look to nature, and see the myriad ways in which plants and animals have harnessed wind energy for their own use. The seed of many future designs will lie in those configurations.
For more information on building wind turbines, see our Product Review Section.