Design and Test of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine with Pitch Control

Abstract

The concept of pitch control has been implemented in the design of a small vertical-axis wind turbine. Benefits gained can be shown by the experimental and numerical results presented in this paper. As found, the method of variable pitch control outperforms the one of fixed pitch control. The present results show that the former can make remarkable improvement on the starting torque as well as the aerodynamic characteristics at low tip speed ratios.