Introduction

1.1 WIND ENERGY

Wind has served mankind as a source of power for over 3000 years now. Before
steam
engine came into existence, wind power was used for sailing ships. In the later
years, with
the advent of wind mills, wind power was being converted to mechanical power
through
wind mills for grinding grains and pumping water. Wind mills have also been
known to drive
water through pipes for irrigation. With the development of the steam engine, the
dependence on wind energy dropped drastically. This also resulted in lower interest
in
research into the field on wind power.
In the late nineteenth century, electricity had become the currency of energy and
thermal
and hydel power plants became the favoured sources of electricity. But not every
country
had the luxury of fossil fuel or water resources. Denmark, being one of those,
invested in
the development of wind turbines to provide for its electricity demand. The 1890s
saw
Denmark lead the path in the development of wind turbines. (Bhadra S N, 2010)
Wind energy, being one of the cleanest sources of electricity, has emerged as one of
the most preferred sources for electricity generation. It is also abundant and can be
tapped in a cost effective way. The maximum extractable energy from the 0-100m
layer of air has beenestimated to be of the order of 1012 kWh per annum, which is
of the same order as hydroelectric potential. (Bhadra S N, 2010)
The present day sees wind power is an entirely different way. Incentives are being
offered to customers who are seeking wind power instead of thermal power for
their domestic requirements. This has been a welcoming change to the wind energy
fraternity as the number of customers opting for wind power has been showing a
rise.
Wind is defined as air in motion. It is caused by different pressure zones. During
daytime, the air above land heats up quickly than air that is found over water.
Warm air over the land expands and rises and the heavier, cooler air rushes in to
take its place hence creating wind.

Wind power is sourced as a result of conversion of wind energy into electricity

using wind turbine. Worldwide wind generated power is totalling more than 74223
megawatts. Denmark tops in wind power generation at 18%, Spain at 9%,
Germany at 7% this information is according to wind energy council.
In ancient times, wind power was only used as a source of mechanical power to
pump water and grind cereals. It was one of the earliest sources of energy with its
use dating back to early civilization mainly in the banks of river Euphrates and
Tigris.

2.0.0 THEORY
Wind is the movement of air caused by the uneven heating of the earth surface, pressure
forces of the air and rotation of the earth on its axis. The relevant information for the design
of wind power systems is as follows;
1) Wind source information e.g. the wind speed and frequency of the wind flowing
2) Sitting requirements that include assessment and prediction of relative desirability
3) Variations of time short term variations in wind direction need to be considered in
wind turbine design and sitting.
There are two types of wind turbine namely;
1) Horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT)
2) Vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)
For the horizontal axis wind turbine due to the fluctuation of wind direction there is the need
for yawing. Yawing is the action of rotating a wind turbine to orient it towards the direction
of the oncoming wind.
Short term wind direction variations and the associated motion affect fatigue life of
components such as blades and yaw drives
The horizontal axis wind turbine is the most efficient wind turbine used so far. It overpowers
other forms of turbines e.g. the Savonious rotor, the Darrieus, the Paddles and the sail wing
turbines which have been manufactured and tested in regards to efficiency ( wind energy
explained, pg 9 2ndedition 2010)
The process of designing of a wind turbine begins by estimation of the wind resource. The
estimation of wind resource is done using statistical methods to find frequent wind speed and
law of conservation of energy which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed it can
only be changed from one form to another to find available power in wind.

Wind turbine technology

One prevailing trend in wind turbine technology throughout the past couple of
decades has been growth in the size of the rotor to realize advantages of scale and
the generally higher winds available at greater heights. Advancement of the current
state of the art has been achieved through both efficient structural design and
optimal material usage to produce the necessary structural efficiency for blades up
to 60 meters in length.
Future designs for even larger machines will continue to push the extremes of the
design envelope, primarily limited by the penalty of weight growth, available to
the structural design team. Designers now must consider new and innovative
solutions to enable larger blades because the design issues for larger blades differ
from those which have been encountered in modern blade designs. For example,
geometrically consistent upscaling of blade length shows that the edge stresses at
the blade root due to gravitational loads grow in proportion to the length blade,
while the flap stresses due to aerodynamic loads are independent of the size of the
blade. Thus, at some blade length scale, edge stresses will replace the flap stresses
as the blade design driver. This will lead to modifications to the current blade
architecture. In addition, the blades will likely become increasingly flexible in the
flap direction and softer in torsion.
Large wind turbines must operate under very turbulent and unpredictable
environmental conditions where efficiency and reliability are highly dependent
upon well-designed control strategies. The loads along the blade vary quickly in

time and space due to the impact of gusts that are significantly smaller in size than
the length of the blades.