DESIGN AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE FOR ENERGY HARVESTING FROM HIGH-WAY VEHICLES MOTION

Mandala, Nikhil; Alkalla, Mohamed

doi:10.21608/jest.2022.249531

DESIGN AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE FOR ENERGY HARVESTING FROM HIGH-WAY VEHICLES MOTION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Nikhil Mandala ¹
Mohamed Alkalla ¹^{, 2}

¹ Mechatronics Engineering and Intelligent Machines, School of Engineering, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK

² On Leave; Production Engineering and Mechanical Design Dept., Mansoura University.

10.21608/jest.2022.249531

Abstract

The rapid vehicles on the motorways (with speed ranging from 100 to 160 Km/h) cause excessive wind turbulence, which could be utilized to drive vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT), which in turn, can generate sufficient electrical power. VAWT is compact and represents an innovative solution for the narrow areas despite the horizontal axis turbines that require massive radial space and construction costs. By using an array of wind turbines on both sides of the highways, a significant amount of electricity will be generated which could be utilized for street lighting, electric car charging, and many other purposes. This article proposes a comparative study on the different parameters that could affect the VAWT performance. The CAD models of different VAWT designs are developed by CREO software, while the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is conducted by ANSYS software. The mechanical power generated by VAWT is calculated from the CFD analysis results and hence the electrical power is evaluated. The tribological study of the turbine aerodynamics by CFD concludes the performance of different blade heights and inclination angles with its rotor. It is noted that the generated power increases with increasing the blade height and inclination angle regression.

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