Fabrication and Testing of Small Scale Helical Wind Turbine

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the most abundant resources being exploited with wind turbines having the traditional horizontal axis wind turbine configuration. Traditional horizontal axis configurations are being utilized in onshore and offshore wind farms; however, the investigation of vertical axis wind turbine configurations has been increasing. The following study aims to investigate the design of a helical vertical axis wind turbine. A small-scale helical vertical axis wind turbine was designed based on previous investigations and research. The turbine was tested at wind speeds ranging from 7.5 m/s to 9.5 m/s. The results showed that the wind turbine was in good agreement with numerical simulations under typical environmental conditions.