Performance of Microscale Maple Seed Wind Turbine Blade

Strategies to reduce global warming by limiting the consumption of fossil fuels are expected in part to include the integration of various renewable energies in residential buildings, which emit a considerable volume of greenhouse gases. Wind turbines are an important technology for moving toward this goal, as they are especially effective in isolated or rural areas for small-grid power systems. However, the approach requires that they be miniaturized, and that the production of wind blades be more convenient. The present study proposes a maple seed-shaped blade mimicking the practical shape and performance of a toy, in which the blade is so simple it can just be bent, eliminating the cumbersome production process of current propeller-type blades. We demonstrate with visualization, experiments of the flow characteristics, and numerical analysis that the power coefficient Cp of the wind turbine with micrometer-scale maple seed blades (7.5 cm long) was superior to that of the one using a propeller-type blade. A better Cp was observed with maple seed-shaped blades than with rectangular plates. This was found to be due to the behavior of the vortex near the blade. The performance of the maple seed wind turbine provides perspective on the development of microscale wind turbine-inspired dual-mode possessing characteristics of both lift and drag wind turbines.