Blade performance analysis and design improvement of a small wind turbine for rural areas

Electrification projects based on renewable energy technology have demonstrated to be suitable for providing electricity to rural communities. In the region of Cajamarca, Peru, a wind electrification project has been implemented to provide electricity to the rural community of El Alumbre. To develop...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Cabanillas Sánchez, Verónica
Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2099.1/19353
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2099.1/19353
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Wind turbines--Design and construction
Rural electrification--Peru
Wind energy
Rural areas
Blade design
Optimization
Aerogeneradors -- Disseny i construcció
Electrificació rural
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Energia eòlica::Aerogeneradors
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Desenvolupament humà i sostenible::Desenvolupament sostenible::Energia i sostenibilitat
Descripción
Sumario:Electrification projects based on renewable energy technology have demonstrated to be suitable for providing electricity to rural communities. In the region of Cajamarca, Peru, a wind electrification project has been implemented to provide electricity to the rural community of El Alumbre. To develop this project the wind turbine IT-PE-100 was designed. The turbine was built for the specific environmental conditions of the mountainous region of the Andes. This thesis focused on the performance identification of the current blades of the IT-PE-100. It also presents determinate modifications to the blade design improving the Gross Annual Energy Production of the turbine in the environmental conditions of Cajamarca. To conduct this study the software PROPID has been used to perform the analysis regarding the different modifications. The optimum combination of the modifications yielded approximately 20% more energy annually produced with high performance in high wind ranges. This study demonstrated that small changes in the blade design of IT-PE-100 allow a better exploitation of the wind resource. Also, it encourages further research in experimental studies as wind tunnel experiments to validate the optimization model.