Exploration of a bladeless wind turbine

• Main Author: Ching, Mun Chung
• Other Authors: Wu Yanhua
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70669
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Wind power harnessing is becoming popular for electricity generation due to our depleting and unsustainable natural resources. By 2030, wind energy will be contributing to 20% of electrical generation. However, we are doing so at the expense of our wildlife. On average, between 200,000 to 300,000 birds are killed by these rotating turbine blades yearly. Therefore, there is an increasing need to come up with a solution of reducing the number of wildlife being killed, yet not hindering the gradual process of achieving our electrical generation target by 2030. One solution would be the introducing the bladeless wind turbine for wind energy harvesting. There are several variations of bladeless wind turbine ideas that people have came up with. The scope aims to look into their working principles as well as the disadvantages and advantages behind their designs. The purpose here is to come up with a working design or principle myself. I am looking into reversing the principle of the Dyson Fan or alternatively using vibration energy for electrical generation. A simple prototype was manufactured based on the design and experiment tests were conducted. Unfortunately, the results for Dyson Fan design did not turn out well as planned. The piezoelectric design was used instead after identifying the issues lying within the Dyson Fan design and were incorporated into the piezoelectric wind turbine. The same experimental test was done on the piezoelectric design and recommendations were given to improve the efficiency and reliability of the piezoelectric wind turbine.