Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the maglev wind turbine design features. A vertical axis wind

turbine (VAWT) is introduced by magnetic levitation technology to optimize the performance. The

system utilize nature of permanent magnet to levitate the turbine component and thus minimize

energy losses while rotating, which is the major problem that faced by conventional wind turbine.

The selection of magnet materials in the design of wind turbine system will be discussed.

The Maglev Wind Turbine is expected to bring wind power technology to the next level.

Furthermore, the system can be suited in use for rural and urban areas of low wind speed regions

such as Malaysia, the country which has low wind speed, approximately 1.5m/s to 2.0m/s. A model

of wind turbine is built to perform several tests such as starting wind speed, rotational speed at

constant wind speed, and time taken to stop rotation completely. The results obtained will be

compared with the model of conventional wind turbine.

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 General

Human have invented thousand of machines and appliances that utilize energy to make the daily

works easier, for instance to heat our house, to get ourselves from place to place. Some of this

machines use electricity, while others, like automobiles use the energy stored in gasoline. Much of

the energy supply comes from coal, oil, natural gas, or radioactive element. In fact, all these natural

resource deposits took millions of years to form. They are considered non renewable which means

once they are removed from the ground, they are not immediately replaced within the human time

scale. This current issue is frequently discussed at the level of whole world in order to look for a

solution.

Nowadays, we will ultimately need to search for renewable or virtually inexhaustible energy for the

human development to continue. Renewable energy is defined as the energy generated by the

natural resources such as wind, sun light, water which are quickly replace itself and is usually in

never ending supply. The exploration of renewable energy is the only approach to reduce our

dependence on fossil fuels. Among those renewable energy resources, wind energy is the only

resource that will be concerned in this paper. Wind energy was first harvested centuries ago, when

early windmills were used to power millstones, pumps, and forges. More recently, the wind is

harnessed by using a special collector, called wind turbine to produce a clean, safe source of

electricity.

Various designs have been proposed in order to create a high efficient wind turbine which able to

generate maximum electric power. They may either the design of shapes of the turbine blades, the
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axis of rotation, and other useful modification. Recently, an advance technique, Magnetic Levitation

(Maglev) is incorporated into turbine system in order to fulfill the needs of those energy industries.

The Maglev wind turbine, which was first unveiled at the Wind Power Asia exhibition in Beijing, is

expected take wind power technology to the next level with magnetic levitation. The turbine uses

permanent magnets (neodymium), not electromagnets and therefore, it does not require electricity to

run. This design claims that the friction between the turbine blades and the base can be reduced

significantly and thus produces maximum power output. This task can be a success by using pairs of

permanent magnet which attached to both the turbine blades and the fixed base of machine. A

repulsive force will be produced to lift the blades above the base. The turbine blades will be

levitated instead of mounted them (using ball bearing) to the base of the machine. It will allow them

to rotate with minimum friction and minimize the energy loss. This system can operate under low

(as low as 1.5m/s) and high wind speed (exceeding 40m/s) condition. From the study, the generation

capacity of maglev wind turbine is 20% over conventional wind turbines and decrease operational

costs by 50%. This make the efficiency of the system become higher than the conventional wind

turbine.

1.2 Objective

The objective of this report is to design a Maglev wind turbine to meet the following requirements

1. Improve the starting wind speed

2. Able to rotate with high speed

3. Longer time to stop rotation completely

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Wind Energy

Wind is the flowing of air. This phenomenon occurs in the whole world and it is caused by uneven

heating on the earth’s surfaces which causes the air is flow from hotter regions with higher pressure

to colder regions with lower pressure. There are some reasons to support in using the wind energy to

produce electricity power. Wind power available in the atmosphere is much greater than current

world energy consumption. The exploitation of wind power is only limited by the economic and

environmental factors, since the resource available is far larger than any practical means to develop

it. Renewable energy produced from the wind has attracted a lot of attention and support in recent

year’s .However, this green energy is often criticized for its low output and lack of reliability.

2.2 Wind Turbine

The basic working principle of a wind turbine is: When air move quickly, in the form of wind, and

their kinetic energy is captured by the turbine blades. The blades start to rotate and spin a shaft that

leads from the hub of the rotor to a generator and produce electricity. The tradition generator

experience lots of problem such as highly inefficient, expensive, high maintenance cost, hazardous

to wildlife, and take up too much land, require high starting wind speed to operate.

In general, they are two types of wind turbine according to the axis they are rotating about.

Horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) is the type of wind turbine which has a main rotor shaft and

electrical generator at the top of tower and pointed to the direction of wind. Most of them possess a

gearbox which turns the slow rotation of turbine blades into faster rotation that is more suitable to

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drive an electrical generator. As for the Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) consists of generator

and gearbox which are placed at the ground and thus there is no need for a tower to support them as

in HAWT. The main rotor shaft is arranged vertically to allow the turbine blades rotate without

facing to the direction of the wind.

In VAWT system, the generator and gearbox is placed on the ground rather than on the top. There is

no need of the support from a tower make it more accessible for maintenance. The key of vertical

arrangement of the rotor shaft enable the turbine blades need not to be pointed to the direction of

wind. This is suitable for them to be installed on high variable wind speed region. They can utilize

wind from varying direction. In addition, they have larger surface areas and can operate in low wind

speed region compare with HAWT.

However, most of the new designs of VAWT experience some common problems. Due to the wind

speeds are very low close to ground level, so although their arrangement may save a tower, but the

wind speeds will be very low on the lower part of rotor. This causes the overall efficiency of the

vertical axis machines is not impressive. Also, the machine need guy-wires to hold it in place puts

stress on the bottom bearing as all the weight of the rotor is on the bearing. Guy wires attached to

the top bearing increase downward thrust in wind gusts. Solving this problem requires a

superstructure to hold a top bearing in place to eliminate the downward thrusts of gust events in guy

wired models.

The idea for VAWTs has been blowing around for decades. However, VAWTs are not commonly

deployed due mainly to the serious disadvantages mentioned above, they appear novel to those not

familiar with the wind industry or wind farm. This has often made them the subject of wild claims

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and investment scams over the last 50 years [3] [4]. Despite many advance technology available so far

has attracted interest about improving the VAWT system.

2.3 Magnetic Levitation

Magnetic levitation (maglev) is a method in which an object is suspended with no support other than

magnetic fields. The magnetic force produced is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational

force and lift up the object. There are many advantages for utilizing magnetic levitation that is to

minimize friction, make force measurement, design, and entertaining devices. Recently, this

advance technology is applied into transportation system in which non contacting vehicle travel

safely at very high speed while suspended, guided, and propelled above a guide way by magnetic

fields. The concept of magnetically levitated vehicle stimulates the development of useful

application in various fields such as the power generation.

2.4 Maglev Wind Turbine

Unlike the maglev vehicle, the vertically oriented blades of the wind turbine are suspended in the air

above the base of the machine by using permanent magnet which produces magnetic force to lift up

the blades. This system does not require the electricity to operate because no electromagnets are

involved. Since the turbine blades are suspended by magnetic force produce by the permanent

magnet, there is no need of ball bearing to retain the blades. This allows the friction between the

blades and ball bearing can be reduced significantly and thus, minimizes the energy loss. This also

helps reduce maintenance costs and increases the lifespan of the generator. The Maglev wind

turbine, which was first unveiled at the Wind Power Asia exhibition in Beijing, is expected take

wind power technology to the next level with magnetic levitation.

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 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

A model of wind turbine is built for the use of an experiment to determine the starting wind speed to

operate. The arrangement of component of the model is flexible and it can be treated as maglev and

conventional wind turbine.

The experiment contains three tests to analyze the performance of model. The first test is the wind

speed that needed to start to rotate the turbine blades. The second test is rotational speed of wind

turbine model under constant wind speed. The third test the time taken by the model to completely

stop rotation. The rotational speed of turbine blades and wind speed is measured by tachometer and

anemometer respectively.

3.2 Theory

A model is built using affordable material for the purpose of analysis. The type of VAWT is being

used is the Savonius type wind turbine. The amount of magnetic force that needs to counteract the

weight of the wind turbine must be determined before the type of magnet material is selected.

From the law of attraction

(1.0)

Then, the equation is rewritten as below to calculate the magnetic force between two poles

(2.0)

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Where F : Magnetic force, N

: Magnetic poles, A. m

: Permeability of free space 4π x , N/

R : Distance between two poles, m

The magnetic poles of the magnet can be calculated by using following equation

(3.0)

Where : Coercive force, A/m

: Magnetic poles, A. m

A : Pole face area,

Assuming the distance, r is constant. Then from the equations (2.0) and (3.0), the equation can be
rearranged

(4.0)

According to the equilibrium of forces,

(5.0)

(6.0)

Where : Magnetic force, N

m : total mass of the wind turbine that need to be levitate, kg

g : gravitational acceleration,

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 Figure 1: Free body diagram of magnetically levitated object

Therefore, the magnetic force must have equal forces to the weight of the wind turbine so that it will
levitate. Also, the type of magnet materials with known characteristics can be determined using the
above equation provided the weight of model that needs to be levitated.

The conventional wind turbine is made by removing the magnet attached to both fixed base and

turbine blades, and replacing with a ball bearing.

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3.3 CAD Drawings

1. Shaft

2 2. Wind Turbine

3. Permanent
Magnet

4. Fixed Base

Figure 2: Modeling of Maglev Wind Turbine

3.4 Bill of Materials

Part Material
1. Shaft Stainless Steel
2. Wind Turbine Cardboard
3. Permanent Magnet Ceramics Magnet
4. Fixed Base Wood

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3.5 Procedures

Test 1: The starting wind speed of wind turbine model

1. The model is assembled to be the maglev wind turbine

2. A fan is placed in the direction parallel to the maglev wind turbine model.

3. The fan is switched on and the wind produced is directed to the model.

4. The model is replaced by anemometer and the fan is switched on again. The wind speed is
recorded

5. The test is repeated by using conventional wind turbine model.

Test 2: The rotational speed of wind turbine model at constant wind speed

1. The steps 1 until 4 in test 1 are repeated. The wind speed is measured by using anemometer.

2. The reading of rotational speed of model is recoded after 1 minute for five times.

3. The test is repeated by using conventional wind turbine model. The distance between the maglev
and conventional wind turbine model with the fan is made sure to be the same.

Test 3: The time taken by wind turbine model to stop rotation

1. The steps 1 until 3 in test 1 are repeated.

2. The fan is then switch off after 5 minutes and a card bock is placed in front of it.

3. The time at which the model to stop its rotation completely is recorded.

4. Steps 2 and 3 are repeated for two times.

5. The test is repeated by using conventional wind turbine model.

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 CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Results

Test 1: The starting wind speed of wind turbine model

Wind Turbine Model Starting Wind Speed (m/s) Average (m/s)

Maglev 1.9 1.5 1.4 1.60
Conventional 4.2 4.5 4.6 4.59

Test 2: The rotational speed of wind turbine model at constant wind speed of 5.63 m/s

Wind Turbine Model Rotational Speed (RPM) Average

(RPM)
Maglev 666.00 666.00 630.00 618.00 630.00 640.80

Conventional 292.80 294.00 235.80 270.00 237.00 265.92

Test 3: The time taken by wind turbine model to stop rotation

Wind Turbine Model Time Taken (s) Average (s)

Maglev 14.1 15.7 13.7 14.5
Conventional 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.5

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4.2 Discussion

From the test 1, the wind turbine model with magnetic levitation starts to rotate at lower

wind speed than that of conventional wind turbine, which is 1.6m/s and 4.59m/s respectively.

Most of the existing wind turbine requires high starting wind speed to operate. They are not suitable

used to generate electricity power in certain country such as Malaysia, which has low and unsteady

wind speed. Therefore, starting wind speed becomes an important element that must be included in

the design of wind turbine. The concept of maglev wind turbine is introduced to fulfill this

requirement.

Maglev wind turbine is able to start to rotate at lower wind speed compare with conventional wind

turbine. This can be explained in terms of friction force. In general, there are two friction force exist

in an operating wind turbine. Since the turbine blades are attached to the shaft by using ball bearing,

a friction force is produced between them. Also, there is another friction forces exist between the

turbine blades and the fixed base. In wind turbine with magnetic levitation, the latter one can be

eliminate because the turbine blades are lift up by magnetic force. This wind turbine need only

overcome the moment inertia and friction forces between the shaft and bearing before it start to

rotate. Instead, the conventional wind turbine needs to overcome moment inertia and both the

friction forces, and thus needs higher wind speed which results in more energy to start to rotate. In

addition, magnetic levitation wind turbine requires less maintenance compare with the conventional

wind turbine. This is because the disadvantage of using bearing is it will wear off as the time goes

on. Therefore, the bearing needs to be replaced after some time so that the wind turbine is operating

efficiently.

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 From test 2, the maglev wind turbine model has a higher rotating speed than the

conventional wind turbine under constant wind speed of 5.63m/s. The rotational speeds of maglev

wind turbine and conventional wind turbine are 10.68rpm and 4.43rpm. This result can be explained

in terms of energy conversion. According to the law of energy conservation, part of kinetic energy

in flowing wind is converted into kinetic energy due to rotating turbine blades, and then produces

electric energy. However, the arrangement of the components of wind turbine limits this conversion

and results in energy loss in terms of heat and sound. The following equation can be used to

illustrate this phenomenon.

The total kinetic energy of flowing wind supply to wind turbine

∆Kinetic Energy (flowing wind) = kinetic energy (wind before entering wind turbine) - Kinetic

Energy (wind after exiting wind turbine)

According to law of energy conservation

∆Kinetic Energy (flowing wind) - kinetic energy (rotating turbine blades) – Energy Loss = 0

And therefore,

∆Kinetic Energy (flowing wind) = kinetic energy (rotating turbine blades) + Energy Loss

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 Figure 3: Conversion of energy in Maglev Wind turbine

Therefore, the conventional wind turbine experiences much energy loss in term of heat and sound.

More kinetic energy is needed to overcome the friction forces exist between the bearings attached to

the turbine blades and bottom. This make the rotational speed of conventional wind turbine become

lower than the maglev one. Higher rotational speed means higher kinetic energy of rotating turbine

blades and hence more electric energy can be generated by maglev wind turbine.

From test 3, the maglev wind turbine model take a longer time to stop its rotation completely

compare to conventional one. This test is carried out under the same wind speed. The time taken by

both the maglev wind turbine and conventional wind turbine to stop their rotation is 14.5s and 1.5s

respectively. Since the flowing of wind is unpredictable and varies all the time. The wind may come

to a lower speed and even stop at every instant of time. Higher stopping time is desired because the

wind turbine can still rotate at lower speed in longer time when the speed of flowing wind decrease.

And when the wind speed increases, the wind turbine immediately rotate faster without achieve the

starting wind speed (if wind turbine stop in few seconds).

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 Selection of suitable hard or permanent magnet becomes an important consideration in the

design of a maglev wind turbine. However, due to the cost limitation, the ceramics magnet material

is used to construct the model. It is benefited if the characteristics of permanent magnet materials

before build an actual maglev wind turbine system. For example, the temperature in which the

permanent magnet is applied can never be reached the Curie temperature. Otherwise, the magnet

will be demagnetized that is lost its magnetic properties. Since the maglev wind turbine is located

outdoor, the surrounding temperature must ensured not to exceed the Curie temperature of

permanent magnet. The arrangement of permanent magnet is also a crucial decision. Improper

arrangement of magnet may affect the distribution of magnetic field and thus cause magnetic force

produced is not vertically upward. Another phenomenon will happen due to improper arrangement

of magnet. Considering the following diagram

Figure 4: The distribution of magnetic field between two permanent magnets

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 Figure 5: The distribution of magnetic field when upper part of start to move

The magnetic field is distributed as show in figure 3 before the turbine start to move. When the

upper part start to move right hand side, the magnetic field will be concentrate on this direction.

This make the magnetic force is larger at the right hand side than left one. The imbalance magnetic

forces cause difficulty to the upper part start to move.

Although the magnetic levitation is incorporated into wind turbine system to increase the

power output, there are still several ways to improve the performance of the system. Blade direction

with respect to the wind should be individually controlled by sensor in order to move the blades and

present less of an angle to the wind on the circular return path against wind flow. In other words,

each blade function should be made as a controllable wing to provide maximum efficiency of the

system. In addition, the function of guide wind should be introduced into maglev wind turbine

system to increase the speed of the wind and optimize the angle of attack for the turbine blades to

rotate.

Recently, there are many suggestions regarding the usage of permanent magnet to create a

perpetual motion. If this concept works, a perpetual motion generator can be invented which is able

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to produce electricity continuously. But, if the concept is investigated deeply, the perpetual motion

is found not practical. For instance, if two magnets are attached to turbine blades and the outer

surface (surrounding the turbine blades), the repulsive force produced will continuously push the

turbine blades to rotate. This phenomenon may happen at long time but not forever. This is because

both of magnet material will locate the poles themselves and achieve an equilibrium condition.

Once reach equilibrium state, the repulsive force would not appear between the two magnets and the

wind turbine stop from rotation.

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 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

The Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) with magnetic levitation performs better than the

conventional wind turbine. This is because, the maglev VAWT model has lower starting wind speed

(1.6 m/s) compare to conventional one (4.59m/s). The rotational speed of maglev VAWT is higher,

that is 640.80rpm, while the conventional model is 265.92rpm at constant wind speed of at 5.63m/s.

The time taken for the maglev wind turbine to stop rotating is longer than that of conventional

which is 14.5s and 1.5s respectively. Therefore, the Maglev wind turbine is suitable for the

application of urban areas to provide green energy.

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 CHAPTER 6

REFERENCES

[1] Tony Burton, David Sharpe, & Nick Jenkins (2001), Wind Energy: Handbook , Asia: John Wiley and Sons, inc.

[2] Erich Hau(2006), Wind turbines: fundamentals, technologies, application, economics, New York: Springer Berlin
heidelberg

[3] Ion Paraschivoiu (2002), Wind Turbine Design: with emphasis on Savonius concept, Canada: International Press

[4] Peter Campbell (1996), Permanent magnet materials and their application, United Kingdom: Cambridge University
Press

[5] Society of Automotive Engineers (1992), Maglev, New York: Society of Automotive Engineers

[6] F. C. Moon, Pei-Zen Chang (1994), Superconducting levitation: applications to bearings and magnetic transportation,
WILEY-VCH

[7] China Makes Huge Breakthrough in Wind Power Technology, Retrieved August 1, 2009 from
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4217

[8] Background of MAGLEV, Retrieved September 3, 2009 from

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrailroad3.htm

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 CHAPTER 7

APPENDIXES

Figure A.1. Prototype of Maglev Wind Turbine

Figure A.2. Magnetically levitated turbine blades

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Equipments

Figure A.3. Tachometer Figure A.4. Anemometer

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Equipment Set-Up

Figure A.5. Wind Speed Measurement Figure A.6. Testing of Maglev wind turbine

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