Supported by Danida

DEVELOPMENT OF WIND ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IN NEPAL ON THE BASIS OF NATURAL MATERIALS

Project leader: Leon Mishnaevsky Jr. Partners: Kathmandu Alternative Power and Energy Group (KAPEG); Practical Action Nepal Advisors: Professor Peter Freere, Monash University, Professor David Wood, Calgary

Project, funded by Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Development of wind energy technologies in Nepal on the basis of natural materials

Project duration: 3 years.
Funding: 4 800 000 DKK (about 700 000 )

300W wind turbine with wooden blades Nepali handmade blades for wind turbines

How to choose wood for the turbines? How to choose the coating? Which wood ensures the highest lifetime? .. Our working assumption:
one can develop techniques of quick estimation of wood quality and recommendations for the choice of wood/ coatings, using the analysis of interrelations between microstructure of wood and its fatigue properties.

MAIN PARTS OF THE PROJECT

Setup of testing machines Fatigue/fracture/hardness testing of different sorts of timber Computational analysis of relationships between wood microstructure/ fatigue/ fracture/ hardness

Analysis of the effects of coatings: experiments and modelling,

Realization and testing of practical recommendations

HIERARCHICAL MODEL OF WOOD

S3 S2

Secondary wall

Middle lammella

S1

Primary wall S Three3 layered S 2 Secondary S wall 1 Primary wall

T
R

Middle lammell a

(a)
y x x2 y1

(b) z
2
3

y2

x1

1
(a) (b)

Halpin-Tsai model

Multiscale model of wood:

Mesoscale: softwood is considered a bundle of hexagonal cells of prescribed cross-sectional tracheids with walls of constant thickness;
x (c) (d)

Microscale, the cell wall of the tracheids is represented as an elastic laminate with five layers; Nanoscale: the lamellae represent fibril reinforced composites, with their own volume fractions and characteristic MFAs. Macroscale: annual rings are considered as multilayered material

MODEL OF ANNUAL RINGS

Improved 3D Rule-of-Mixture Model

VL VE 2V EV L ( E L E E E L ) 2 E R 1 /( L E L E L L ) E E E E (V E (1 E ) V E E E (1 L )) V EV L E E E L ( E L ) 2 E L ET V E V E L L V E (1 ( E ) 2 ) V E E E (1 ( L ) 2 )
L L E E

where , E, v and alpha mean Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio and shrinkage coefficients, and the subscripts L, R, T indicate as longitudinal, radial and tangential directions of softwood, respectively.

ANYSOTROPIC DAMAGE MODEL

Apply increment:
0 n

z
3
2

=D0:(

f f ,m (, S, rt ,fc,m )
f>0
Y N

Calculate di(n+1) (i=1,2)

Y

di(n+1)>di(n)
N

Predicted stress-strain relationship of a single element test under longitudinal loading

Predicted stress-strain relationship of a single element test under longitudinal loading

di=di(n+1)
(i=1...5)

(i=1...5)

di=di(n)

Update Dd

Dd=D0 Define , STATEV

New increment

LOCALLY PRODUCED MATERIAL TESTING MACHINES

Locally made four point bending test rig (a), and Brinells hardness tester (b)

Fatigue test rig-left: under construction, right: under test

WOOD TESTING
Stress Strain Curve for Sample Lakuri

Timber Uttish Lakuri Saur Tuni Pine Sisau Okhar Sal

Growing time (years) 8-15 15-20 15-20 15-20 20-30 15-50 30-40 100-200

Growing altitude (metres) [7]

Price NRs/m
3

SL5
100 90 80

SL7

SL8

SL9

SL10

SL11

500-3000 >1700 1500-2700 75-1500 >1500 75-1000 1000-2500 ~300

9000 12500 7000 21000 20000 85000 71000 59000

Stress, N/mm2

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Strain, %

Averaged parameters of different timber types

Sample
Youngs Modulus , GPa Bending Strength, MPa Density, g/cm3

Laku ri 7.12

Sal
12.5 5 83.8 5 0.95

Sisau
13.27

Okh ar 9.34

Salla
8.23

Saur
9.43

Tuni
6.15

Uttis h 6.18

79.33

87.04

86.4 1 0.62

82.25

78.30

70.62

59.9 2 -

0.65

0.76

0.67

0.78

0.51

Micrographs of different types of Nepali timbers: Salla, Lakuri , Sal

Column chart for relative values of Young moduli, breaking strain and Brinell hardness (normalized by the average values of all the parameters of all the types of timber)

WEATHERING OF TIMBER AND COATINGS

Coatings Without coating Varnish Black Wood primer and White enamel Resin Paint
140.00

Number of coats X 4 4 2 2 2

Brand and manufacture of paint Touch wood polyurethane clear wood finish-Asian Paints Synthetic primer-Apollo Paints Synthetic primer-Asian paints and Synthetic enamel-Asian paints Used for fibre glass products

Samples coated after performing static and hardness tests (left), Samples ready for the test(right)

Weathering Conditions
Temp, degC Rain, mm Humidity, %

Rain(mm), Temp(Dec. C), Humidity( %),

120.00

100.00

Coating Without coatings

Results of observation High density timber (sal and sisau) are more resistant to weathering whereas soft wood like pine and lakuri are more sensitive; Cracks can start, originating from the knots; Bending of weathering samples is quite common and samples like uttish have started to decay Coatings seems to weather away slowly from the side facing to sun; Black mould seems to be grow on the surface away from the sun; Samples with knots bend Coatings seems to weather away readily from the side facing to sun; Blisters of paint grow first and then wear off. Finally there are only small streaks of paint seen; Bending of samples was common. Black Japan can be concluded as a complete failure as a protective coating. A few spots of black mould seem to have grown on the surface facing away from the sun; No bending was observed. Most stable coating. Cracks in the coatings are evident; Bending of samples were common. This coating also seems to be failure for timber.

80.00

60.00

40.00

20.00

0.00

Varnish (4 layers)

07 07 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 c- c- n- b- b- ar- pr- pr- ay- un- un- ul- ul- ug- ep- ep- ct- ov- ov- ec- an- an- eb- ar- ar- pr- ayA M -J -J 1-J 1-J -A -S -S -O -N -N -D -J -J -F -M -M -A -M A De De Ja Fe Fe M 7 27 16 8 28 17 7 1 21 1 4- 24- 13- 2- 22- 13- 2- 22- 129 29 19 8 28 18 3 20

90

Date Without Coatings

Uttish
80

Tuni

Okhar

Pine

Lakuri

Saur

Sisau

Sal

weight(gm)

Black Japan (4 layers)

70

60

50

Wood primer and white enamel (2+2 layers) Resin Paint, 2 layers

40

30

07 07 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 c- c- n- b- b- ar- pr- pr- ay- un- un- ul- ul- ug- ep- ep- ct- ov- ov- ec- an- an- eb- ar- ar- pr- ayO N N J J J M M A M J F -J -J A D De De Ja Fe Fe M A A M S S 4- 24- 13- 2- 22- 13- 2- 22- 12- 1- 21- 11 31 20- 9- 29- 19- 8- 28- 18- 7- 27- 16- 8- 28- 17- 7Date

Weather conditions (above) and change in weight of samples without coatings

TIMBER BLADES FOR WIND TURBINES: Mechanical Testing

Static test rig for timber blade (a) and measuring the displacement at the tip of the blade

17.60

Breaking pattern of timber blade SBL2 , SBL3 and SBP2 (a) and Graph of Load Vs Displacement (at tip of blade) for the timber blade SBL2. The pattern of crack in the blade is at an angle of 17.60 with respect to leading edge of blade.

TIMBER WIND TURBINES: Field Testing

Rutland wind turbine at a school in montain Nepal

Timber wind blades (a) and testing the turbine keeping it in the vehicle with the anemometer aside (b)

Rutland wind turbine at Kusheswor secondary school, Nepal

TIMBER WIND TURBINES: Field Testing

Installation of the wind turbines with wooden blades in Phakhel, Nepal

2008 International Workshop on NATURAL AND LOWCOST MATERIALS IN WIND ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
November 10-12 2008, Dhulikhel, Nepal

2009 International Workshop on SMALL SCALE WIND ENERGY FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
September 14-16, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya

MAIN REFERENCES:
Two Special Issues of the Journal of Wind Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2009, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2010 R. Sinha, P. Acharya, P. Freere, R. Sharma, P. Ghimire and L. Mishnaevsky, Jr. Selection of Nepalese timber for small wind turbine blade construction, J Wind Engineering, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2010, pp. 263276 L. Mishnaevsky Jr, D. Wood, Editorial, J Wind Engineering, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2010, pp. i-iv H. Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr., 3D multiscale micromechanical model of wood: From annual rings to microfibrils, Int J Solids and Structures, Vol. 47, No. 9, 1 2010, pp. 1253-1267 H.Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr., Unidirectional high fiber content composites: Automatic 3D FE model generation and damage simulation, Computational Materials Science, Vo. 47, No. 2, 2009, pp. 548555 H. Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr, 3D hierarchical computational model of wood as a cellular material with fibril reinforced, heterogeneous multiple layers, Mechanics of Materials, Vol. 41, no. 9, 2009, pp. 10341049 H. Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr, Moisture-related mechanical properties of softwood: 3D micromechanical modeling, Computational Materials Science 46 (2009) 310320 L. Mishnaevsky Jr, P.Freere, R. Sharma, P.Brndsted, H. Qing, J. I. Bech, R. Sinha, P. Acharya, R. Evans, Strength and Reliability of Wood for the Components of Low-Cost Wind Turbines: Computational and Experimental Analysis and Applications, J Wind Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2009 PP 183196 H. Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr, Micromechanical modelling of mechanical behaviour and strength of wood: State-of-the-art review, Computational Materials Science, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2008, Pp. 363-370