Article | REF: BE8584 V1

The physics of windmills

Author: Hervé NIFENECKER

Publication date: October 10, 2018, Review date: November 30, 2018

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


Français

7. Conclusion

The implementation of wind turbine electricity generation must be analysed at many levels.

The first is at blade level , which essentially consists in analysing the external forces acting on it: the force of the wind, the force of air resistance, and the resistance due to generator coupling. The rotational speed of a wind turbine is limited by the appearance of aerodynamic instabilities at the blade tip, i.e. around 350 km/h. This speed corresponds to an optimal wind speed of around 66 km/h. The calculated efficiency is in the order of 25% of the Betz limit, itself equal to 60% of the wind power intercepted by the area swept by the blades. The overall efficiency of large wind turbines is thus in the order of 15%. This optimal value is obtained for wind speeds from 15 to 20 m/s. Typically a 4 MW wind turbine rotates at 20 rpm...

You do not have access to this resource.

Exclusive to subscribers. 97% yet to be discovered!

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference

A Comprehensive Knowledge Base, with over 1,200 authors and 100 scientific advisors
+ More than 10,000 articles and 1,000 how-to sheets, over 800 new or updated articles every year
From design to prototyping, right through to industrialization, the reference for securing the development of your industrial projects

This article is included in

Energy resources and storage

This offer includes:

Knowledge Base

Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees

Services

A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources

Practical Path

Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills

Doc & Quiz

Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading

Subscribe now!

Ongoing reading
Conclusion