IMPROVED DESIGN FOR THE STRUCTURE AND GEAR SYSTEM OF A BLADE ELEMENT OF A VGOT DARRIEUS

F. L. PONTA; A. D. OTERO; J. J. SEMINARA; L. I. LAGO

Colonia, Alemania

Congreso; World Renewable Energy Congress VII and Exhibition; 2002

The concepts presented here involve the constructive aspects of variable-geometry oval-trajectory (VGOT) Darrieus turbines. The key feature of a VGOT machine is that each blade, instead of rotating around a central vertical axis, slides over rails mounted on a wagon. Every wagon contains its own electrical generation system coupled to the wheels and the electricity is collected by a classical third rail system. In a traditional Darrieus rotor, the blades rotate around a central vertical axis. If one were to make high power generators, there appear some problems associated with the large machines. The VGOT concept allows increasing the area swept by the blades, and hence the power output of the installation, without the structural problems (and low rotational speed) associated with a classical Darrieus rotor of large diameter. In the VGOT Darrieus, each blade is mounted on a chassis supported by standard train boogies. The chassis is formed by a tubular reticulated structure. Adding an orientation device, the blades could position themselves at an optimal angle optimising the efficiency of the plant. In this paper we propose some new engineering solutions to our VGOT design, looking for the use of standard railway material as much as possible.