The dominance of fossil fuel usage has led to the depletion of oil, natural gas, and coal reserves and is causing environmental damage. Alternative renewable energy sources are required and among these sources, wind energy proves to the most promising. Although, the progress in efficiency of wind turbines has significantly improved over recent years, the issues of high noise production and harm caused to wildlife during operation are still concerns.
The bladeless generator takes wind generation a step further, utilising the phenomena of Karman vortex shedding to convert wind energy into useable power within a compact and simple design. Thus, such generators could be placed in crowded areas and generate power where a traditional wind turbine cannot.
The bladeless generator was designed using Computational Fluid Dynamics, numerical modelling, and structural analysis. A prototype was tested with a single degree of freedom inside the 7 ‘ x 5 ‘ wind tunnel at the University of Southampton. The protoype cylinder resonated and oscillating about the pivot rod to convert the wind energy into electricity through a magnet and copper coil generation system.
Data for acceleration, amplitude, and voltage were taken during wind tunnel testing. The system was able to provide a maximum output voltage of 0.5 V corresponding to a power output of 11.85 mW whilst resonating at a wind speed of 8.89 ms-1.
The bladeless generator takes wind generation a step further, utilising the phenomena of Karman vortex shedding to convert wind energy into useable power within a compact and simple design. Thus, such generators could be placed in crowded areas and generate power where a traditional wind turbine cannot.
The bladeless generator was designed using Computational Fluid Dynamics, numerical modelling, and structural analysis. A prototype was tested with a single degree of freedom inside the 7 ‘ x 5 ‘ wind tunnel at the University of Southampton. The protoype cylinder resonated and oscillating about the pivot rod to convert the wind energy into electricity through a magnet and copper coil generation system.
Data for acceleration, amplitude, and voltage were taken during wind tunnel testing. The system was able to provide a maximum output voltage of 0.5 V corresponding to a power output of 11.85 mW whilst resonating at a wind speed of 8.89 ms-1.