Exercises on Wind Turbines.

1) State 4 reasons for choosing large wind turbines.

2) State 4 reasons for choosing small wind turbines.
3) State the distance apart at which typically wind turbines are placed in a wind
park.
4) Draw a horizontal axis wind turbine and name its general constituent parts.
5) Consider a wind turbine with a 20 m diameter rotor installed on a 40 m high
tower at a site where the average wind speed is 7 ms-1 at the standard height of
10 m above the ground.
a. Calculate the average wind speed at the center (hub) of the rotor
b. The average output power
c. The annual energy production of the above wind turbine
6) Explain the Betz limit in wind turbines.
7) Calculate how many times the output power of the two wind turbines will be
increased or decreased, if their diameter is doubled, when one turbine produces
double the output power of the other turbine.
8) The fraction of power extracted from the wind is calculated by the power
coefficient C P = 4a(1−a)2, where a = (u 0 -u 2 )/2u o , where u 0 is the upstream
velocity and u 2 is the downstream velocity of the wind.
a. Draw the power coefficient curve with respect to a.
b. Show that the maximum value of C P is 16/27 when a = 1/3.
9) By applying conservation of mass and considering the ratio of the areas A 0 and
A 1 , show that the optimum power extraction (according to linear momentum
theory) per unit of area A 0 is 8/9 of the incident power in the wind.
10) Given that the Reynolds number is given by Re=uX/ν, the flow of air in the wind
will be turbulent if Reynolds number R ≥ 2000, otherwise the flow is laminar.
Calculate the maximum wind speed for laminar flow around an obstruction of
dimension 1.0 m, given that the kinematic viscosity of ambient air is 15.68x10-6
m2/s. Is laminar flow realistic for wind turbines?
11) Prove that at maximum power extraction, with λ being the tip-speed ratio, that
λ=cotΦ1.5, such that maximum power extraction in varying wind speed relates to
maintaining λ constant, as aerodynamic design also requires.
12) A wind turbine maintains a tip-speed ratio of 8 at all wind speeds. At which wind
speed will the blade tip exceed the speed of sound (330 m/s)?
13) A large wind turbine has a blade diameter of 100m. At what rotor speed (i.e.
frequency) will the tip-speed exceed the speed of sound (330 m/s)?
14) A number of designs of wind turbine pass the output wind from one set of blades
immediately on to a second identical set (e.g. two contrary rotating blades set on
the same horizontal axis). By considering two actuator disks in series, and using
linear momentum theory, show that the combined maximum power coefficient
C P equals 0.64, given that it occurs at a=0.2.
Note: This is only slightly larger than the maximum of 16/27 = 0.59 for a
single pass of the wind through one set of blades. Thus in a tandem
horizontal axis machine of identical blade sets, and indeed in a vertical
axis turbine, little extra power is gained by the airstream passing a
second set of blades at such close proximity.

15) The calculation of power coefficient C P by linear momentum theory can proceed
in terms of b = u 2 /u 0 . Show that

(a) C P =
(1−b2)(1+b)/2,

(b) C P is a maximum at 16/27 when b = 1/3, and

(c) a =
(1−b)/2 where a = (u 0 −u1)/u 0 .

16) For a wind speed pattern following a Rayleigh distribution, prove that:
−
(a) The most probable wind speed is 0.80 u
−
(b) The most probable power in the wind occurs at a wind speed of 1.60 u .

− − 3 − −
6 3
(c) u 3 = (u ) where u 3 is the mean of u , and u is the mean of u, and so
π
− 1/ 3 −

u 3
= 1.24 u .