Centimeter-Scale Wind Turbines Design and Analysis

Electric energy is among the world's top necessities. Current energy matrices will not always be sufficient. Wind energy is a viable source, though its use is still limited. Centimeter-Scale Wind Turbines (CSWTs) can broaden wind energy harnessing. They are of more straightforward assessment but lack a systematic procedure for their design. To the best of the author's knowledge, the classical method to calculate power outputs from wind turbines does not apply appropriately to their reduced-scale counterparts. This work proposes a modified approach to calculate CSWT power curves without requiring experimental tests related to the turbine itself. The modified method is based on coupling the Blade Element Momentum theory with basic electric generator equations. A simplified blade design method is presented. Three wind turbines with 150 mm diameter were fabricated using a 3D printer polymer, differing only by the number of blades. Each rotor coupled with the same electrical generator was treated and submitted to wind tunnel testing to evaluate energy extraction performance. Measured results from this test are compared with the numerical model. Results demonstrate that the approach is well-suited to CSWT analysis and showed far better outcomes for the turbines with 4 and 5 blades than for the 3-bladed one.