STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL DUCTED WIND TURBINE

Renewable energy technologies offer a competitive cost of energy values in large-scale power generations compared with those from traditional energy resources. In 2015, residential and commercial buildings consumed 40% of total US energy consumption. Short and long-term plans have been developed to further employing wind energy technologies for electricity generation. However, there is a significant gap in developing reliable utility scaled distributed wind energy converters. Employing novel low-cost wind harnessing technologies in these sectors supports the renewable-energy expansion plans. A novel ducted wind turbine technology, called Wind Tower, for capturing wind power is designed and developed in earlier works. In this work, the Wind Tower structural analysis is conducted to obtain insights to the required materials and optimum components' dimensions at an expanded range of wind flow regimes. A stable and robust design addresses the need for developing an optimum solution to obtain a maximum output power generation at a minimum cost of energy. It will lead to a maximum return on investment. The results demonstrate a superior structural performance of the Wind Tower Technology. It withstands pressure loads from high wind speed when it is installed as a standalone structure.