A Harvester with a Helix S-Type Vertical Axis to Capture Random Breeze Energy Efficiently

Abstract

Breeze energy is a widely distributed renewable energy source in the natural world, but its efficient exploitation is very difficult. The conventional harvester with fixed arm length (HFA) has a relatively high start-up wind speed owing to its high and constant rotational inertia. Therefore, this paper proposes a harvester with a helix s-type vertical axis (HSVA) for achieving random energy capture in the natural breeze environment. The HSVA is constructed with two semi-circular buckets driven by the difference of the drag exerted, and the wind energy is transferred into mechanical energy. Firstly, as the wind speed changes, the HSVA harvester can match the random breeze to obtain highly efficient power. Compared with the HFA harvester, the power coefficient is significantly improved from 0.15 to 0.2 without additional equipment. Furthermore, it has more time for energy attenuation as the wind speeds dropped from strong to moderate. Moreover, the starting torque is also better than that of HFA harvester. Experiments showed that the HSVA harvester can improve power performance on the grounds of the wind speed ranging in 0.8–10.1 m/s, and that the star-up wind speed is 0.8 m/s and output peak power can reach 17.1 mW. In comparison with the HFA harvester, the HSVA harvester can obtain higher efficient power, requires lower startup speed and keeps energy longer under the same time. Additionally, as a distributed energy source, the HSVA harvester can provide a self-generating power supply to electronic sensors for monitoring the surrounding environment.