Optimized design of a straight blade urban roof top vertical axis wind turbine

Depletion of fossil fuels and increasing concerns of global warming has forced the society to think about environmental friendly energy resources. Wind energy is a viable option in this regard. Vertical axis wind turbines offer promising solution and hence relieving the society from the integrated grid systems. Small scale urban roof top vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) is one of the simplest forms with its wide spread applications necessitating its design and development in a cost-effective manner. A study is undertaken on a three straight bladed VAWT. The design is formulated using available empirical formulas and sophisticated software's leading to a fabricated scaled down prototype. A detailed CFD and stress analysis is done on multiple struts configurations, central column assemblies, blade profiles to optimize the performance of the turbine. A comparison is also made between the analytical, software based and experimental results.