 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Whilst marvelling at the awesome engineering of the four new windmills above carsington whilst out on my pootle tonight my thoughts turned to "what stops the ****ers spinning out of control" on particularly windy days. Is it gearing, big **** off set of hope callipers, or something else. Please tell me it isn't actually something that costs money (big hope pads) to do, as it somewhat negates their greeness!
The blades are feathered to prevent them going too fast
Don't they rotate to a point where the wind doesn't turn the sails? I dunno...that was the last thing I heard...I think.
Move along. Nothing to see here....
[url= http://www.explainthatstuff.com/windturbines.html ]How Wind Turbines Work 1[/url]
[url= http://energy.gov/eere/wind/inside-wind-turbine-0 ]How Wind Turnines Work 2[/url]
blade pitch adjustment, superstar disc brakes, and I think I heard some just can't go beyond a certain speed ie the increased friction counteracts the increased sideyways spinny propulsion but there might be a more engineering description that an armchair engineer will post shortly.
The other control - with some if not all turbines- is you can vary the phase between the generator in the turbine and the grid its supplying so they are effectively pushing harder against the national grid in higher winds and this harder push keeps the blade speed down. A friend has one on his farm and its doesn't have a brake or any mechanism to rotate the blades, instead it just uses the phase of the grid its supplying as resistance so it is spins at a constant speed whether the wind conditions are high or low, but generates more power in high wind because its pushing harder.
The power they generate when spinning is stored in a special box in the mast and this power is then used to stop them spinning too fast on windy days......maybe.
all decently sized ones have variable pitch to control the speed. Either hydraulic or electric motor controlled. I'm a maintainance tech if you've got any more Q's.
These are bloody huge and perched on top of the biggest hill around! So basically if you flatten the blades off they don't pick up as much force from the wind?
We've only had one catch fire so far in the village here, hurricane bawbag was to blame apparently
Not the folks who put the specs together...
The blades have a aerofoil profile, just like an aeroplane wing. They turn the rotor because of the lift they generate not because they are pushed out of the way by the wind (that would be a panamane).
When you furl the blades you turn them into the wind to the point where the flow over them stalls, again just like an aeroplane wing would. That partial or total loss of lift causes them to rotate the rotor more slowly or stop all together.
The tower is stacked with 3 or 4 massive batteries that are changed up by the blades rotating a huge dynamo. They're like AA batteries but 10,000 times larger.
The batteries power a motor that slows the blades down when it's too windy. There is a brake for when the batteries run flat. the blades usually turn out of the wind so they're not needing as much brake to stop them.
When you see a wind turbine (not a windmill as it doesn't mill anything) that's not spinning on a windy day the batteries are flat or some Numpty put one in the wrong way round.
The power of the wind is harnessed by the blades and in smellier parts of the UK air fresher is actually drizzled from the blades to freshen things up a bit. This is why there are so many going up between Leeds and Doncaster at the moment. Some actually have deodorant in too.