The most common problem faced by the world today is the lack of power resources. Sources of power were fossil fuels, nuclear power, and natural gases. The consequences of these energy sources were, they were in a limited quantity in nature and took a lot of time in replenishing, thus the use of a renewable sources of energy came into existence. Widely used techniques in collecting these sources of energy are larger in dimension and created environmental issues. Considering the case of wind energy, mechanism used to convert kinetic energy of wind to electrical energy is done by rotating generator with the help of blades installed on the tip of the windmill. Blades that rotate with the power of wind are connected to gears that rotate the generator. A single rotation of blade can effectively rotate the gear multiple times thus generating much more electricity.
Just like all mechanism these structures also have disadvantages. The installation and transportation of equipment and machinery were expensive. Positioning of the windmills were also had to be taken into consideration as it should be placed at remote locations where there were less population. Windmills created threat to wildlife mostly for birds. Maintenance of these system were not economical. It consumed a larger area because each structure had to be placed at an adequate distance.
Considering all these disadvantages lead the invention of an advanced and more effective mechanism by a Russian based company named VORTEX. They named it VORTEX BLADELESS AEROGENERATOR consisting of a few elements that can produce electrical energy from wind. Vortex technology claims getting electricity from wind through oscillation, which can be used as a green energy.
Structure of bladeless turbine is structured cylindrically without any rotating blades which differs from the conventional wind turbines. Outer cylinder called MAST is designed to be rigid and has the ability to vibrate upon the action of wind towards it from any direction. An anchor is connected between mast and generator which is fixed at the bottom on the ground. Carbon fibre re-enforced polymer is used as the mast in the turbine due to its non-corrosive property and durability. Furthermore, carbon re-enforced polymer tends to have higher tensile strength which contribute to its rigidity and also prevent the turbine from tearing apart due to shearing force of wind and to support vibration motion.
When the wind strikes or passes the mast of the bladeless turbine it will create vortex or spinning motion of air. Vortex then exert forces with certain frequency on the mast. When the frequency of the force is equal to the natural frequency of the mast resonance will occur and eventually the mast will vibrate and oscillate, this phenomenon is known as VORTEX INDUCED VIBRATION. Vibration of the mast will create kinetic energy and this energy will be transformed into electrical energy by the generator.
Advantages that make bladeless turbine more popular are it can save a lot of space compare to conventional wind turbines as they require a large area of separation between two turbines. Oscillation of the bladeless wind turbine is very tiny and less aggressive than traditional turbines. The design of the turbine is simple and cost effective. Productivity can be increased by placing multiple units in the same area.
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