Generation of energy using alternative sources is one of the topical tasks of modern science. Today for that purpose we use electromagnetic radiation of the Sun, movement of water in rivers and oceans, as well as kinetic energy of the wind. Scientists of South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, Russia are working in this field: a wind turbine engineered at the university will be improved in the future and will be able to generate more energy.

Created Wind Turbine Generates More Energy Already Now

In 2018 an article on this issue was published in the international journal Institute of Physics indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. The scientific work is devoted to mathematical modeling of the process of controlling the wind turbine.

{module In-article}

“The system of controlling a wind turbine is a complex of algorithms. We are working on developing this control system in order to, first, the aggregate’s operations could become maximally safe. Second, it is necessary to achieve the most energy efficiency (efficiency output). It is important that the maximum quantity of kinetic energy is taken from an oncoming wind flux, and after that this energy gets efficiently processed from mechanical to electrical one, and is transferred to the power supply facilities. Our wind turbine has a relatively high efficiency output (the coefficient reaches 0.45). In other words, the oncoming wind flux contains 10 energy units, and the wind turbine takes a certain part of energy and processes it into electricity. The output is 4.5 energy units. Similar turbines generate 3 energy units,” shares postgraduate of the Department of Electric Power Generation Stations, Networks and Supply Systems of the SUSU Polytechnic Institute Evgeny Sirotkin.

The wind turbine engineered at SUSU features a number of competitive advantages: the rotor has a vertical axis of rotation, so as a result there is no need to orient the wind turbine according to the oncoming wind flux. Moreover, the wind turbine may be mounted on a building’s roof since the vibrational oscillations occurring during the wind turbine’s operation are extremely small and do not affect the foundation and concrete structures. Another advantage of the wind turbine also includes low level of subaudio noises, what makes it safe for the personnel working in its vicinity. The use of such wind turbine is especially efficient on the territories not equipped with central electric power supply.

Wind Turbine May Be Used in the Arctic Region

“It is cost-efficient to implement such turbines on the Far East, as well as in the Arctic areas,” notes Evgeny Sirotkin. “A big-scale program of the Arctic Region development is currently underway. However, for that purpose energy supply sources in those regions need to be available. The cots of 1 kilometer of electric energy transmission lines may reach 1 to 2 million roubles. The expenses on drawing a transmission line to the territory will be very high. The cost of our wind turbine approximately equals the cost of 1 kilometer of electric energy transmission line, and the planned lifetime of it will be 35 years. The expenses on drawing an electric energy transmission line may exceed 100 million roubles (depending on the distance). Moreover, a line is in constant need of maintenance: it be ice-up, get damaged, or wires can break, etc.”

Testing of the control system being developed is performed on a special stand, one part of which imitates wind load, and the other — the wind turbine’s rotor. Supercomputer modeling using the created mathematical model of the wind turbine allows to reduce the experiment time from several hours to several seconds, as well as check a lot of different variations of the wind turbine’s operation. This makes it possible without any material expenses to determine the most suitable method of controlling the wind turbine and the modes of its operation.

At present the team of scientists has set itself a task to make the wind turbine experiment more standard ones. Today its batch production is uneconomical since the construction includes many complex details. Simplification of the construction will allow to optimize the production of wind turbines. Experimental prototypes have already been installed on the shores of Barents Sea, in Moscow Region, as well as in Japan and the USA.