Performance enhancement of PowerWindow, a linear cascade wind turbine, for application in urban environments

Abstract

Urban environments have many attractions and difficulties when it comes to the development of wind energy harvesting systems. Critical issues of using these systems in urban environments include noise, aesthetics, integration into architectural systems, and efficient use of the available wind resource. Wind in urban areas tend to be more turbulent and multi-directional. The presence of buildings increases the turbulence of the wind and also deflects the direction of the wind from a horizontal free stream. Aesthetics is also a concern as many people find conventional wind turbines unattractive. There are also environmental concerns, such as the consideration of bird safety. Conventional horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines cannot easily be integrated with architectural designs due to their configuration and accommodation requirements. These systems need to be properly integrated with the architecture of urban environments. This research project aims to enhance the performance and application of a new wind turbine referred to as PowerWindow. PowerWindow is a type of Linear Cascade Wind Turbine (LCWT) that has recently been developed based on a modular approach and is flexible for integration with the architecture of urban environments. Furthermore, PowerWindow is capable of generating power in low wind velocity conditions with very low operation speed, which makes it an effective and safe wind turbine for application in urban environments. Hence PowerWindow is potentially an alternative to the conventional wind turbines for the application in urban environments.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English