Enhancing Performance of a Bicycle Wheel Wind Turbine Using a Wind-Lens

Mahadev Prasad Panda, Sohan Prasad Sahoo, Bijay Balia Hembram

Abstract: The following work deals with low cost and green energy production from wind by using a bicycle wheel wind turbine (BWWT) shrouded with wind-lens. A bicycle wheel wind turbine is a very simple wind turbine that is made, using a bicycle wheel and the blades are made up of plastic and fitted with the rims of the wheel. To increase the performance of the turbine a wind-lens is used which increases the wind speed striking the turbine blades by creating turbulence at the rear end. The design and analysis of the turbine were done using Autodesk Inventor and Ansys (fluent) software respectively. Finally, the whole set up was manufactured and an experiment was conducted at different wind speeds in order to check the performance of the wind turbine assembled with a wind-lens.

Keywords: Green energy; Wind energy; Bicycle wheel wind turbine; Wind-lens; Turbulence.