An analysis of the impacts of the number and angle of miniature wind turbine blades on the efficiency----Based on modern horizontal-axis wind turbines

Abstract

As the energy crisis becomes much more serious, renewable energy is needed as a solution. Among all the renewable powers, wind power plays a significant role. Although there has been much research on modern wind turbines, almost no studies focus on miniature wind turbines. To fill the research gap, here the author applies both literature research and control-variable experiments to take a deeper insight into how the number and angle of miniature wind turbine blades affect the efficiency and whether there are some differences in the impacts of the two factors on the efficiency between miniature wind turbines and modern wind turbines. It is found out that as the number of blades increases from 1 to 4, the efficiency would grow while there’s a slight decrease when the blade number becomes 5. Moreover, the four-bladed miniature wind turbine with 0 degrees is figured out to be the better design without consideration of cost compared with modern wind turbines. The rate of growth also shows a great difference between modern and miniature wind turbines. The gradient increases as the number of blades rises for miniature wind turbines, and that of modern wind turbines has the opposite trend. This study has shed light on the area of miniature wind turbines. And it’s innovative to research the angle between structural lines in the modeling process.