How Fast Do Wind Turbines Spin? | Wind Turbine Question Answered
Wind turbines are energy generators that use wind energy and is indirect solar energy like biomass, geothermal energy,etc. It converts the wind energy to actually usable electricity. Wind turbines use big blades that spin/rotate due to strong winds, and the rotation is used to generate electricity.
Pretty ingenious if you think about it. But, if you have seen a wind turbine from afar, you will notice how slowly wind turbine spin. Right? One might wonder how it is generating any electricity at such a slow speed. Well, this was a question I myself pondered when I was young.
When you get up close, you will realize how fast they spin. Since they have huge blades, it will look like they are spinning really slow, but the tip of the blades are spinning at incredible speeds. If you are wondering how fast does a wind turbines spin, we will go into detail about this.
What Is A Wind Turbine?
A wind turbine is a device that captures wind kinetic energy and converts it to electrical energy. The national grid receives the electricity, which is then delivered to numerous outlet points. Because of their motion and the force applied, all moving things have kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is the measure of how quickly something heavier moves.
Depending on the purpose for which they are being used, wind turbines come in a variety of sizes and shapes:
- Small turbines are made to provide remote homes and cabins with effective power.
- Community-scale turbines provide enough energy to power all the houses and businesses in a neighborhood.
- Wind farms are made up of industrial-scale turbines. They provide a consistent, massive supply of energy to the National Grid.
Types Of Wind Turbines
There are two important types of wind turbines which are HAWT and VAWT. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT): This a turbine design that is the most popular.
At the top of the tower, it has a rotor shaft with two or three aerodynamic blades attached to it. They have the ability to operate at high speeds and are placed either upwind or downwind.
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT): Because they are less efficient than HAWT, this turbine type is not as widely employed. Due to the main rotor shaft’s vertical orientation, any direction of the wind can activate it.
They provide people with a private source of renewable energy by often being utilized to individual power properties. Both horizontal and vertical wind turbine can be bought for residental use and commercial use.
Factors Affecting Speed Of Wind Turbines
1. Wind Speed
The wind speed has the most impact on the rotor’s rotational speed. The faster the wind speeds, the faster the wind turbine’s speeds. Wind speeds of about 6 miles per hour trigger the wind turbine to start producing power.
They operate at their rated maximum speed of about 35 mph. Even if the wind blows faster now, they still don’t produce any extra electricity. At 55 miles per hour, the wind turbines hit the cut-off point and stop to protect the internal parts.
2. Size Of Turbine
The turbine’s capacity for rotational speed is also influenced by its size. Although it may appear that smaller wind turbines are spinning quicker due to their higher RPM, larger wind turbines actually have faster blade tips due to their larger radius of rotation.
3. Air Density
Due to the higher air particle density per unit of wind volume, denser air carries more energy. More mass is added to the wind, as a result, increasing its power. Wind turbines in densely populated locations produce more electricity at the same wind speed. Additionally, they spin more quickly due to the heavier air’s push on the blades.
4. Blade Size And Design
The blade speed is directly influenced by blade length. Tip speeds increase as blade length increases. Additionally, they are able to capture more wind, which results in increased power.
Higher rotating speeds result from this power, increasing the energy produced. They also have more momentum because they are heavier. An extended blade is comparable to a bigger carousel.
Since the carousel’s diameter is greater, there is more area for it to achieve higher speeds at the edge because there is more space between the tip and the center. In comparison to a shorter wind turbine blade spinning at the same angular velocity, the tip of a big blade can travel faster.
How is Turbine Speed Calculated?
To determine how quickly a wind turbine’s blades spin, you must first know how far they move during each revolution.
The equation for this is 2r, as you may recall from your school days.
The diameter of the circle in this instance, r, is the same as the length of the wind turbine blade.
Therefore, the turning distance of a typical modern wind turbine with 170ft (52m) blades is (170 x x 2) = 1068.14 ft or (52 x x 2) = 326.73m.
The length of time it takes for the blade tip to complete one full revolution is the next thing you need to know. Assume it takes 4.5 seconds in our case.
Therefore, 1068.14 / 4.5 = 237.36 ft per second would be the tip speed. You can convert it to mph.
How Fast Does A Wind Turbine Spin? | Wind Turbine RPM
When the wind blows at its rated speed, the rotor of the majority of wind turbines rotates at a speed of 20 to 30 rpm. However, the rotor’s average speed can be substantially lower if the wind speed isn’t consistent.
Knowing the duration of the rotor’s one rotation and dividing that number by the time interval you’re using are necessary to determine the turbine’s average speed.
Using a 60-minute interval as an example, the average speed would be 30 rpm if the rotor took 2 minutes to complete one full rotation.
You need to know the diameter of the rotor and the wind speed in order to compute the wind speed at which the turbine is spinning at its rated speed.
The wind speed should be measured using an anemometer and multiplied by two. Therefore, if the wind speed is 10 meters per second and the rotor diameter is 10 meters, the turbine would spin at its rated speed of 20 rpm.
How Fast Does a Wind Turbine Spin? |Wind Turbine Tip Speed
Imagine yourself seated at the very tip of a wind turbine blade, as ludicrous as it may sound. Now picture a companion seated at a location on the blade that is nearer the blade’s root, let’s say the middle.
It is clear that the distance you or your companion travel for each full rotation or revolution is equivalent to the diameter of a circle with a radius equal to the closest person’s distance to the blade root.
But you both complete your entire revolution simultaneously. Because you are the furthest away from the root (at the tip of the blade), you must have the most speed.
To summarise the concept of blade tip speed, you can compute it by first computing the time spent on each revolution. You may achieve this by inverting your RPM value, which will tell you the percentage of a minute needed to finish a rotation. Then divide the time taken for each revolution by the radius of the blade tip rotation.
You may determine the rotation circumference by multiplying twice the blade’s radius by the prime integer Pi (blade diameter).
Final Thoughts
Do not be deceived by a wind turbine’s seemingly slow rotation. Wind turbine blades can reach speeds of over 100 miles per hour at their tips, with the largest blades reaching 150 miles per hour on particularly windy days.
This is because rotating objects move faster at their edges. Longer blades have faster tip speeds because their bigger diameter allows them to travel farther at faster speeds. The turbines are actually built by engineers to revolve at a specific speed based on the wind speed.
Along with several other elements, this influences how much power the turbine produces. To more readily cut through the air, the blades are constructed from specialized materials and are aerodynamically efficient.
