Small-scale wind energy portable turbine (SWEPT)

This paper reports the design and characterization of a small-scale wind energy portable turbine (SWEPT) targeted to operate below 5 m/s wind speed. Aerodynamic performance characteristics of SWEPT were extensively examined using the wind tunnel experimentation and it was found that the maximum coefficient of performance of 14% occurred at the tip speed ratio of 2.9. SWEPT was found to have very low cut-in wind speed of 2.7 m/s and it produced 0.83 W of electrical power at the rated wind speed of 5 m/s. Further, we designed a diffuser structure for SWEPT using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. It was observed that the SWEPT having diffuser of almost same length as the diameter of SWEPT can produce 1.4 to 1.6 times higher electrical power. An alternative method for the mechanical power calculation is also discussed which does not require torque measurement device and thus is highly useful for common laboratory measurements.