Low Speed VAWT - Turbine Startup
Mohamed AbouElNaga
Registered Users Posts: 1
Hi,
We are building a low vertical axis wind turbine and we are actually facing a problem which is the high cogging torque in the ac generator which prevent the generator from being a self starter. we are a thinking for a solution for that issue so we thought why wouldn't we drive the generator with an ac voltage coming from an inverter which is driven by the batteries, but actually we are not sure about that solution. Briefly, we have a controller that have some feedback such as RPM, wind speed, voltage, current measurements so I think we can use those variables in order to control whether or not to feed the generator from the inverter through some sort of controllable switching so would anyone please advise us if that is possible or not and if its possible how could we calculate the amount of power needed to overcome that cogging torque and start the generator as a motor.
attached is a simple block diagram describing the system and explaining the concept that we are worried about.
Thanks
Attachment not found.
We are building a low vertical axis wind turbine and we are actually facing a problem which is the high cogging torque in the ac generator which prevent the generator from being a self starter. we are a thinking for a solution for that issue so we thought why wouldn't we drive the generator with an ac voltage coming from an inverter which is driven by the batteries, but actually we are not sure about that solution. Briefly, we have a controller that have some feedback such as RPM, wind speed, voltage, current measurements so I think we can use those variables in order to control whether or not to feed the generator from the inverter through some sort of controllable switching so would anyone please advise us if that is possible or not and if its possible how could we calculate the amount of power needed to overcome that cogging torque and start the generator as a motor.
attached is a simple block diagram describing the system and explaining the concept that we are worried about.
Thanks
Attachment not found.
Comments
-
Here are some examples on how to decogg an alternator:
http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/articles/decoggingFP.asp
Here is an example of a wind turbine made from a pair of brake rotors that has little cogging.
http://www.otherpower.com/davesmill.html
The last thing possible. Alternator are actually three phase motors. You could connect up a vfd to start/drive the alternator (use an external anamometer to measure wind) and then switch over to the rectifier--And technically, there is a good possibility that the VFD can be "driven backwards"--Basically become a synchronous rectifier (if you have DC input to the VFD).
Depends on your hardware and the amount of controller electronics and programability, there are some interesting things possible.
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Also something else to consider - - if the wind speed is not high enough to start the alternator, is it really high enough to produce any useful power anyway, or would it just be wearing out the bearings to provide something interesting to look at?
Categories
- All Categories
- 243 Forum & Website
- 150 Solar Forum News and Announcements
- 1.4K Solar News, Reviews, & Product Announcements
- 189 Solar Information links & sources, event announcements
- 918 Solar Product Reviews & Opinions
- 256 Solar Skeptics, Hype, & Scams Corner
- 22.5K Solar Electric Power, Wind Power & Balance of System
- 3.5K General Solar Power Topics
- 6.7K Solar Beginners Corner
- 1K PV Installers Forum - NEC, Wiring, Installation
- 2.1K Advanced Solar Electric Technical Forum
- 5.5K Off Grid Solar & Battery Systems
- 438 Caravan, Recreational Vehicle, and Marine Power Systems
- 1.1K Grid Tie and Grid Interactive Systems
- 652 Solar Water Pumping
- 829 Wind Power Generation
- 625 Energy Use & Conservation
- 624 Discussion Forums/Café
- 301 In the Weeds--Member's Choice
- 91 Construction
- 124 New Battery Technologies
- 108 Old Battery Tech Discussions
- 3.8K Solar News - Automatic Feed
- 3.8K Solar Energy News RSS Feed