TY - GEN
T1 - Design of a miniature wind turbine for powering wireless sensors
AU - Xu, F. J.
AU - Yuan, F. G.
AU - Hu, J. Z.
AU - Qiu, Y. P.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - In this paper, a miniature wind turbine (MWT) system composed of commercially available off-the-shelf components was designed and tested for harvesting energy from ambient airflow to power wireless sensors. To make MWT operate at very low air flow rates, a 7.6 cm thorgren plastic Propeller blade was adopted as the wind turbine blade. A sub watt brushless DC motor was used as generator. To predict the performance of the MWT, an equivalent circuit model was employed for analyzing the output power and the net efficiency of the MWT system. In theory, the maximum net efficiency 14.8% of the MWT system was predicted. Experimental output power of the MWT versus resistive loads ranging from 5 ohms to 500 ohms under wind speeds from 3 m/s to 4.5 m/s correlates well with those from the predicted model, which means that the equivalent circuit model provides a guideline for optimizing the performance of the MWT and can be used for fulfilling the design requirements by selecting specific components for powering wireless sensors.
AB - In this paper, a miniature wind turbine (MWT) system composed of commercially available off-the-shelf components was designed and tested for harvesting energy from ambient airflow to power wireless sensors. To make MWT operate at very low air flow rates, a 7.6 cm thorgren plastic Propeller blade was adopted as the wind turbine blade. A sub watt brushless DC motor was used as generator. To predict the performance of the MWT, an equivalent circuit model was employed for analyzing the output power and the net efficiency of the MWT system. In theory, the maximum net efficiency 14.8% of the MWT system was predicted. Experimental output power of the MWT versus resistive loads ranging from 5 ohms to 500 ohms under wind speeds from 3 m/s to 4.5 m/s correlates well with those from the predicted model, which means that the equivalent circuit model provides a guideline for optimizing the performance of the MWT and can be used for fulfilling the design requirements by selecting specific components for powering wireless sensors.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77953507366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1117/12.847429
DO - 10.1117/12.847429
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77953507366
SN - 9780819480620
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2010
T2 - Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2010
Y2 - 8 March 2010 through 11 March 2010
ER -