Design of Flexible Length Blade to Improve the Performance of The Wind Turbine

Abstract

The methodology for design of flexible length blade is proposed in this paper. The power generation of a horizontal axis wind turbine is related to the cube of wind velocity and the square of the turbine diameter. The power produced at any given time is thus dependent on wind velocity and the rotor swept area of the turbine. Wind is variable in availability and consistency, thus to extract more power from the same variable velocity, it is required to vary the diameter of the rotor in order to capture the maximum power the rotor diameter must be increased during low wind speed and to decrease the rotor diameter by retracting the blades to regulate the electrical power and, mechanical loads during heavy wind gusts.A variable length blade can adapt length variation to accommodate low wind velocities and similarly high wind velocities during extreme conditions by extension and Retraction mechanism, thus increasing the operational time and power production of the turbine.