FABRICATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A CIRCULAR MULTI-BLADED CLOSE-ENDED, VERITICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE AS A BATTERY CHARGER

Nowadays, generation had developed a variety of domestic energy resources, including geothermal resource, hydroelectric power, offshore oil reserves, and coal fields (Steinberge 2000). In the Philippines, 64.4 percent of the production of electricity is from thermal source which is characterized by burning a coal and oil to produce energy or electricity (Energy Information Administration, 2003), thus producing negative impact to the environment. In addition, depletion of the sources for the said power may occur in the future. Therefore, wind turbine is one of the solutions for arising economic as well as environmental crisis especially in our country. This device uses the energy of the wind to generate and produce useful, environment-friendly electricity. In the study, the performance of the multi-bladed wind turbine was determined based on the measured actual power and the computed theoretical power. After three trials, the results showed that the power coefficient of the multi-bladed wind turbine was 20 percent. This means that the performance is 33.3 percent of the 60 percent maximum theoretical power or the Betz limit. According to the result of the study, there are factors to consider for better performance of the wind turbine. The first factor was the availability of the wind speed given in the area. Secondly, the physical characteristic of the blade material to be used as a rotor should be weightless. Furthermore, the height of the wind turbine that corresponds to the maximum wind velocity should be attained for a better rotation of the rotor. Lastly, the mode of conveying the rotor's speed of rotation to the electricity-generating medium should be employed with transmission system so that the rotation of the rotor as well the performance of the wind turbine itself will increase.