Journal of Engineering and Architecture

A Vertical Axis Wind Turbine and Its Control
Camilo Martinez, Cris Koutsougeras

Abstract
This paper presents a study of a vertical axis wind turbine and its specific control. The specific structure of the turbine involves panels that must be perpetually flipped between a vertical position and a horizontal position so that each panel is vertical when it travels downwind and horizontal when it travels upwind. The flipping of each panel cannot be instantaneous and thus a need exists to determine a proper timing for accomplishing the change of the orientation of each panel so as to minimize energy losses. The contribution of this study is a method to determine the control for flipping the panels to maximize the energy production based on computational simulations.

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