Development of Blade Design for Small Hawt Adapted for Lower Values of Wind Speed

Abstract

The paper aims at studing, theoretically and experimentally, the influence of turbines blade profile on output power, in order to decrease effective domain to smaller wind speed, specific to Galati area. Studies have been made using a type of turbine with variable blade profile and another type using a blade with enlarged surface and variable angle of attack. The blade shape was designed for a torque maximization at lower wind speed values. A scale experimental model of blades and of AIR-X horizontal axis wind turbine featuring the optimized blade design was constructed and tested in the low speed wind tunnel. Research results confirm the possibility that using these two methods, the effective increasing performances of the domain of AIR-X wind turbine and increasing energy to be transferred without modifications to the electric generator.