Vibration Analysis of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Blade

The motivation for this project arose from an expected vibration source of a small-scale vertical axis wind turbine currently undergoing field-testing. The turbine consists of three 3-metre long vertically aligned blades each fixed to the central shaft by two horizontal arms and separated from one another by an angle of =120º. The blade profile is a NACA 0015 with a chord length of 0.4 metres fixed at zero angle of attack to the support arms. The turbine optimally operates at a blade-tip speed ratio (the ratio of the blade rotational velocity to the ambient wind velocity) of 1.6.