18-10-2014, 09:29 AM
Abstracts: In order to maximize wind energy generation, rotor blades of a horizontal axis wind turbine should be positioned perpendicular to incoming wind direction. For a small scale wind turbine, this objective can be achieved by using a passive tail mechanism while for a medium or large scale turbine it requires an active yaw control mechanism which uses wind direction sensors, servomotors and controllers. In small scale turbine, active yaw control have to be designed in a way that rotor blades mounted on the nacelle should always remain perpendicular to the wind direction having zero yaw error. However, care should be taken that nacelle does not suddenly rotate with too fast yaw movement, otherwise high gyroscopic forces would adversely affect the construction. In case of high wind speeds, active yaw control mechanism could be used to avoid damage to the turbine assembly by rotating nacelle in direction other than wind direction. In this project, we are designing an active yaw control mechanism for a small scale wind turbine to overcome the above problem.