JP2020020274A - Wind turbine-folding savonius-type wind power generator - Google Patents

Abstract

To solve the following problems: there is no method for making a conventional savonius-type windmill cope with an excess of a speed over a critical speed, even when the excess is caused due to a strong wind; and a wind turbine of the savonius-type windmill is heavy and expensive because a metal is used therefor.SOLUTION: A wind turbine has a structure in which a flexible material such as a cloth is put up on a skeleton material. In addition, the skeleton material is hoisted or hung by a rope rotating in the state of being integrated with a rotating shaft. The rope is wound and unwounded by a motor-driven winch, and moved in a rotating-shaft direction. This enables structural unfolding or folding when needed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a wind power generator using a Savonius type wind turbine. In particular, the Savonius type wind turbine relates to a wind power generator that is configured by stretching a skeletal material with a soft covering material such as cloth and that can be deployed or folded as necessary.

Small wind power generators are being researched and developed in various fields as local clean energy, and a horizontal axis wind turbine in which the support shaft that supports the rotor blades is arranged horizontally, and a support axis that is arranged vertically with respect to the ground. There is a vertical axis windmill.

The horizontal axis wind turbine needs to change the direction of the wind turbine in accordance with the change in the wind direction, and therefore has a complicated structure and requires a corresponding cost. On the other hand, the vertical axis wind turbine does not need to change the direction of the wind turbine in accordance with a change in the wind direction, so that it can have a simple configuration and is expected to be widely used in a wide range of applications.

The vertical axis windmills are classified into, for example, a lift type windmill called a gyromill type and a drag type windmill called a Savonius type and a cup type, for example. The lift type windmill is a windmill that mainly obtains rotational force from lift generated on the rotating blades, and the drag type windmill is a windmill that mainly obtains rotational force from drag generated on the rotary blades.

The Savonius wind turbine, which is a typical drag type wind turbine, has features such as low wind speed, good startability, large torque, simple structure, and easy manufacture. Therefore, various proposals have been proposed to further improve the characteristics. For example, there is disclosed a technique in which an outer end of a blade having an arcuate surface is separated into a movable portion, and the outer end is rotatable in a rotating direction of a windmill against a restoring spring force to increase a drag. (Patent Document 1)

However, such an improvement policy complicates the structure of the wind turbine blades, and the metal wind turbine blades are heavier and larger, resulting in increased costs.

In order to improve such a point, the inventor has already manufactured a windmill blade that does not use a metal material composed of a skeleton material, a cloth covering the skeleton material, and a coating material made of a polymer compound sheet, and installed the wing at an installation site. The technique of assembling is presented. (Patent Document 2)

According to this technique, it is easy to manufacture, can be easily assembled at an installation site, and can realize a lightweight and low-cost wind turbine blade. However, the fundamental challenge of the Savonius wind turbines was that they could be destroyed in strong winds.

Published Patent Publication No. 55-84871 Utility model registration No. 3170315

It is an issue to provide a safe product that solves the fundamental problem of Savonius wind turbines, which can be destroyed in the event of strong winds.

The problem is solved by making the windmill a flexible structure instead of a rigid structure, and avoiding destruction by using a structure that can be folded in strong winds. That is, to provide a popular small-sized wind power generator which is mainly made of cloth, wood, rope, etc. as a material to achieve a flexible structure, is easily folded, is inexpensive, is easy to transport and install, and is easy to introduce. It is.

This is also achieved by minimizing or minimizing the use of metal materials such as iron and polymer materials such as vinyl, which generate large amounts of carbon dioxide in the manufacturing process, and using eco-friendly materials such as cloth and wood made of natural materials. It is also trying to contribute to carbon neutral.

The invention according to claim 1 is a wind power generator having a Savonius type windmill,
The wing of a windmill has a structure in which a skeletal material is covered with a flexible material such as cloth,
And a wind power generation device having a structure that can be expanded and expanded or folded and reduced as required.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the wind turbine generator according to the first aspect,
The blade of the wind turbine is a wind power generation device having a structure in which the skeleton is expanded or folded by moving the frame material in the direction of the rotation axis of the wind turbine.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the wind turbine generator according to the first aspect,
The wing of the windmill has a structure that expands or folds by moving the skeleton in the direction of the rotation axis of the windmill,
A wind power generator having a structure in which two or more blades having the same structure are stacked in the direction of the rotation axis, wherein the phases in the rotation direction of the blades in each stage are different.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the wind power generator according to the second or third aspect,
A wind power generator having a structure in which the frame material of the wind turbine blade is lifted or suspended by a rope that rotates integrally with the rotation shaft when moving the frame material.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the wind power generator according to the second or third aspect,
When lifted and deployed or suspended and folded by the rope rotating integrally with the rotating shaft to move the skeletal material of the windmill wings,
A wind power generator having a structure in which an electric winch winds or unwinds the rope.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the wind power generator according to the fifth aspect,
When the wind speed or the rotation speed of the windmill exceeds a preset value, the rope is automatically rewound with the electric winch to fold the wing of the windmill,
Further, the wind power generator is characterized in that when the wind speed does not exceed a preset value, the rope is automatically wound by the electric winch and the blades of the windmill are deployed.

FIG. 1 shows the entire apparatus showing the outline of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view in which only the wind turbine blades are extracted from the entire diagram. FIG. 1 is a side view of a wind turbine blade-foldable Savonius-type wind power generator 1. A wind turbine blade 2 is a Savonius type, as can be seen from FIGS. This is a structure in which the center of each original cylinder is divided and separated from the center axis of rotation.

It is a feature of the present invention that the rotary wing 2 is not a rigid structure but a flexible structure composed of a skeletal material that rotates together with the central axis and a covering material such as a cloth impermeable to the wind that covers the skeletal material.

FIG. 1 or FIG. 3 shows a state where the rotary wing 2 is expanded and expanded. When receiving the wind, the drag on the side concave to the wind is larger than the drag on the side convex to the wind, so that a rotational force is generated. (Right rotation when viewed from above)

As the wind speed increases, the rotation speed increases. If the wind speed exceeds a certain value, the windmill may be destroyed by centrifugal force or wind force. In order to reduce the rotational speed and the centrifugal force, a method using a brake attached to the rotating shaft can be considered. However, in the prior art, there was no way to prevent the windmill from being destroyed by excessive wind power.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method of folding a wind turbine having a flexible structure to avoid breakage in strong winds in order to safely operate a Savonius wind turbine. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a state in which the windmill is folded to reduce the wind receiving surface in order to avoid destruction.

The windmill is composed of a frame material and a covering material such as a cloth impermeable to the wind that covers the frame material. In addition, there is a square hole in the center of the cross beam, which is the center of the frame material to form the half shape of the cylindrical shape of the windmill, and it is fitted with the outer shape of the rotating shaft. , The skeletal material can slide up and down along the central axis. As shown in FIG. 1, in order to expand and expand the windmill, a rope connected to the upper part of the windmill may be wound up, and the skeletal material suspended by the rope may be pulled up in the direction above the rotation axis. .

Conversely, in order to fold and reduce the windmill, the rope connected to the upper part of the windmill may be rewound, and the frame material may be lowered to a position below the rotation axis.

Folding the windmill blades can be performed by automatic control by measuring the wind speed by an anemometer attached to the top of the gantry or by measuring the rotation speed of the windmill, so that unmanned operation is possible.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of wind turbine blades stacked in two stages in the direction of the rotation axis. The structure per stage is the same as in FIG. 3, except that the phase in the rotational direction is different by 90 degrees. This further improves the starting characteristics.

By folding the wind turbine blade, destruction at the time of strong wind can be avoided. It has a simple structure and can be inexpensively and safely commercialized. The flexible structure of the wind turbine blades makes it possible to use eco-friendly materials for the entire structure, such as supporting columns, as well as responding to global environmental issues and significantly reducing the cost of transporting materials and products. . These factors greatly contribute to the promotion of the spread of wind power generators.

Conceptual diagram of a Savonius type wind turbine generator Conceptual diagram showing the windmill blades folded Perspective view of windmill wing Perspective view of a two-stage wind turbine blade Top view of frame material of Savonius type windmill Plan development of coating material of Savonius type wind turbine Block diagram of electric control circuit Sequence diagram of automatic control

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a Savonius-type wind power generator 1 of the most general type, which represents an embodiment of the present invention, of a wind turbine blade. The figure is viewed from the horizontal direction. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing only the wind turbine blade 2 in order to make the structure of the wind turbine blade 2 easy to understand.

The windmill blade self-folding Savonius type wind power generator 1 is roughly divided into a windmill, a gantry, and an electric device. First, the windmill blade will be described. The feature of the present invention is that the Savonius-type wind turbine blade 2 is not made of normal metal, but has a structure in which a plurality of horizontally extending frame members 4 are covered with a cloth, such as canvas, which is difficult to pass air to form a semi-cylindrical shape. It is. In this embodiment, as can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 3, the skeleton member 4 and the covering member 6 are provided in three stages.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the skeletal material 4 of the Savonius type wind turbine. The frame member 4 is one in which a beam 402 is fixed to both sides of a seat plate 401 having a square hole 403 in the center, and extends left and right. On both sides (up and down in the figure) of the beam 402, semicircular arc-shaped members 5 are fixed such that their ends are near different ends of the beam 402. The broken line shows a cross section of the covering material 6 in a state where the skeleton material 4 and the arc-shaped material 5 are covered with the covering material 6 described below.

FIG. 6A is a developed plan view of the covering material 6 of the Savonius type wind turbine. As shown in the figure, a plurality of V-shaped cuts are made from both ends of a rectangular cloth or the like. In this embodiment, there are six cuts (collecting both ends as one).

When the V-shaped cuts are cut and sewn at adjacent positions so as to close the V-shape, a semi-cylindrical windmill blade 2 is formed as shown in FIG. 6B. If the arc-shaped material 5 serving as the skeleton shown by the broken line is fixed by sewing or the like, one of two Savonius windmills as shown in FIG. 3 is completed. In the present embodiment, as shown by the broken lines, the arc-shaped members 5 are fixed to three positions, that is, the upper and lower portions and the center portion of the coating material 6.

In addition, the center of the upper and lower semi-conical ceilings formed by sewn V-shaped cut portions of the covering material 6 is convex, and the slope is provided because rain and snow do not stay at the top. That's why.

A hole 403 at the center of the seat plate 401 at the center of the frame member 4 is fitted to the rotary shaft 3 with a slight gap. Therefore, when the hole 403 of the skeleton 4 is passed through the rotating shaft 3 that stands vertically, the skeleton 4 can freely slide up and down while maintaining the horizontal position. Thus, it is an important feature of the present invention that the skeletal material 4 slides up and down on the rotating shaft 3, thereby enabling the covering material 6 to be folded.

As described above, the center of the upper and lower semi-conical ceilings of the two identically shaped wind turbine blades assembled by covering the skeleton 4 with the coating 6 as shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. Then, they are fixed to the upper connecting beam 16 and the lower connecting beam 17, respectively, and are opposed to each other and connected.

A hole is formed in the center of the upper connecting beam 16 in the same manner as the seat plate 401 of the skeletal material 4, and the upper connecting beam 16 is fitted to the rotating shaft 3 with a slight gap. Therefore, like the skeletal material 4, it can freely slide up and down. The lower connecting beam 17 has the same structure as the upper connecting beam 16, but is fixed so as not to move to a position below the rotating shaft 3 during assembly.

Next, the entire structure will be described again. As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, the wind turbine blade-foldable Savonius wind turbine 1 is assembled on a gantry 30 mounted on the ground or on a foundation. The rotating shaft 3 of the wind turbine blade 2 is vertically supported by a gantry 30.

That is, the rotating shaft 3 penetrates the holes formed in the gantry upper beam 31 and the gantry intermediate beam 32, and is vertically supported by the rotating bearings 10 and 11 fixedly installed respectively. Further, the weight is supported by the thrust bearing 12 installed on the gantry lower beam 33.

As shown in FIG. 1, the connecting beam 16 is suspended by the rope 9. The rope 9 passes through the pulley 7 attached to the rotating shaft 3 and the hollow rotating shaft 3 and is wound by an electric winch 8 attached to the rotating shaft 3. Although the rope 9 passes through the hollow rotary shaft 3 in FIG. 1, the rope 9 may simply pass along the rotary shaft 3 without passing through the rotary shaft 3. In addition, hanging down with the rope 9 is referred to as hanging down.

A slip ring 23 is disposed at a position below the rotating shaft 3 so that it can be electrically connected to a non-rotating outside. The electric winch 8 attached to the rotating shaft 3 and rotated together with the wind turbine blade 2 and the electric control box 21 installed on the fixed gantry intermediate beam 32 are connected through a slip ring 23 and a serving table (not shown). I have.

Similarly, the generator 20 is installed on the gantry intermediate beam 32, and is connected to the electric control box 21 by wiring (not shown). The rotating shaft of the generator 20 extends downward through a hole in the gantry intermediate beam 32, and a small pulley 14 is installed at the tip.

A large pulley 13 is fixed to the lowermost part of the rotating shaft 3. The large pulley 13 and the small pulley 14 are connected by a drive belt 15, and form a speed increasing mechanism. When the large pulley 13 rotates, the small pulley 14 rotates at high speed, and the generator 20 generates electric power. The power generated by the wind turbine blades 2 is converted into electric power.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual block diagram of an electric control circuit inside the electric control panel 21. In the figure, thick arrows indicate power, and thin arrows indicate signals. As shown in the upper part of FIG. 7, the operation panel 22 installed on the column of the gantry 30 has an "automatic / manual changeover switch", a "windmill blade up / down switch", and a "wind speed setting switch". Is input to the “windmill blade control circuit” of the electric control panel 21 through wiring not shown in FIG.

The “windmill blade control circuit” receives wind speed information from an anemometer 34 separately installed at the top of the gantry and output voltage of the generator 20, that is, information indicating the rotation speed of the windmill blade 2. The wiring of the anemometer 34 is not shown. The “windmill blade control circuit” automatically determines whether to expand or contract the windmill blade 2 based on the information, and sends a voltage to wind or rewind the rope 9 to the electric winch 8. For this purpose, the power stored in the “battery” is used through the “charge / discharge control circuit”.

The output of the generator 20 is directly rectified in the case of DC, rectified in the case of AC, input to the “DC / DC converter” in the electric control panel 21, and converted into a predetermined constant voltage. The output of the “DC / DC converter” is used to charge the “battery” through the “charge / discharge control circuit”. The stored power can be consumed by connecting a “battery” to an external device through a switch. Further, the electric power stored in the “battery” can be converted into an alternating current by a “DC / AC converter” and sent out to an external power system through a contactor (electromagnetic switch).

The power generation operation of the windmill blade-foldable Savonius type wind power generator 1 will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of the electric control panel 21. FIG. 8 shows a sequence diagram of control of the “windmill blade control circuit”. The contents of this sequence diagram show the concept of a typical operation.

First, the case of automatic operation will be described. In S01, some input is performed from the operation panel, and the sequence proceeds. If the "automatic / manual changeover switch" of the operation panel 22 is "automatic" in S02, the process proceeds to the next S03. In S03, the maximum value is obtained by observing the wind speed measured by the anemometer 34 for a certain period of time. Next, if the maximum value of the wind speed is smaller than the value set using the “wind speed setting switch” on the operation panel 22 in S04, the process proceeds to S05.

In S05, if the windmill blade 2 has already been deployed, nothing happens and the process returns to S02. Immediately after the installation of the wind turbine generator, the wind turbine blade 2 is in a reduced state. In that case, the process proceeds to S06, in which the electric winch 8 is driven to wind up the rope 9, and the wind turbine blade 2 is deployed. At this time, electric power for driving the electric winch 8 is supplied from a “battery” built in the electric control panel 21 through a slip ring 23 installed on the rotating shaft 3. Thereafter, if the automatic operation is to be continued, the sequence continues to go around the loop from S02 to S06.

During this time, if the wind turbine blades 2 which are developed by the wind blow rotate, the generator 20 rotates at high speed to generate electric power by the speed increasing device constituted by the large pulley 13 of the rotating shaft 2 and the small pulley 14 of the generator 20. . The generated power is converted to a predetermined constant voltage by a “DC / DC converter” built in the electric control panel 21 shown in the block diagram of FIG.

The generated power passes through a “charge / discharge control circuit” built in the electric control panel 21 and is stored in a “battery”. Further, the electric power may be converted into alternating current by a “DC / AC inverter” and sent to an external power system through a contactor (electromagnetic switch).

If the wind becomes strong and the maximum wind speed within a certain period of time becomes larger than the value set using the "wind speed setting switch" of the operation panel 22 in S04, the sequence exits the loop and proceeds to S07. In S07, it is confirmed that the wind turbine blade 2 is deployed, and the process proceeds to S08. In step S08, when the electric winch 8 is driven and the rope 9 is rewound, the deployed wind turbine blades 2 fall down by their own weight and are reduced to the state shown in FIG.

At that time, the wind turbine blade 2 stops rotating during the contraction, and the generator 20 also stops. The sequence goes through the loop from S02 to S04 and S07 and enters a standby state. In this case, since the measurement of the wind speed is continued, if the maximum wind speed within a certain period of time becomes smaller than the set value after a while, the process proceeds to S05 instead of S07, and the windmill blade 2 is deployed again in S06. To generate electricity.

Next, a manual operation will be described. When the operation is started with the “automatic / manual changeover switch” of the operation panel 22 set to “manual”, or when the operation is already in progress and the loop below S02 is being performed, the “automatic / manual changeover switch” is set to “manual”. , The sequence proceeds to S09.

In S09, when the "windmill blade up / down switch" of the operation panel 22 is "up", the process proceeds to S10, and when the windmill blade 2 is reduced, the process proceeds to S11, and the winding motor 8 winds the rope 9 up. The windmill blade 2 is deployed. If the windmill blade 2 has already been deployed, nothing happens and the process returns to S01.

In S09, if the “windmill blade up / down switch” of the operation panel 22 is “down”, the process proceeds from S12 to S13. If the windmill blade 2 is deployed, the process proceeds to S14, and the winding motor 8 To reduce the size of the wind turbine blade 2. If the windmill blade 2 has already been reduced, nothing happens and the process returns to S01.

In the above description, the output of the anemometer 34 was used for the measurement of the wind speed. However, since the output voltage of the generator 20 is linked to the wind speed, the speed obtained therefrom may be used.

Further, although the description has been made of the cloth that impervious to the wind, such as the canvas 6 covering the windmill blades 2, the cloth that is impervious to the air may be a cloth made of a natural material such as ordinary cotton and coated with a polymer material. Alternatively, a material obtained by applying another polymer material to a cloth made of a polymer material may be used. Further, a sheet of a polymer material may be used instead of a woven cloth. That is, any sheet-like material that is flexible, impermeable to wind, and easy to process may be used.

As the material for the skeleton material 4 and the arc-shaped material 5, wood, bamboo, polymer round or square pipes, metal round or square pipes and the like are suitable.

Further, as the material for the gantry 30, wood, a polymer round or square pipe, a metal round or square pipe, or the like is suitable.

The present embodiment is a multi-stage windmill blade folding type Savonius type wind power generator in which a plurality of foldable Savonius type windmills are stacked in the direction of the rotation axis. The Savonius-type wind turbine having a plurality of stacked layers improves the starting characteristics by providing a phase difference in the rotation direction to each stage.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of wind turbine blades stacked in two stages in the direction of the rotation axis. The structure per stage is the same as that of FIG. 3 shown in the first embodiment, but the two wind turbine blades 2a and 2b have a phase difference of 90 degrees in the rotation direction. Other points are the same as those in the first embodiment.

In this embodiment, the Savonius type wind turbines are stacked in two stages, but the number of stages may be further increased. In that case, the phase difference between adjacent stages is the same. As a result, the start-up characteristic is further improved as compared with the case where the starting characteristic is one-stage.

As described above, according to the present invention, the Savonius-type wind turbine can be safely driven by solving the problem of destruction at the time of strong wind, which is a fundamental problem of the Savonius-type wind turbine. Equipment can be provided.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Windmill blade folding type Savonius type wind power generator 2 Windmill blade 3 Rotating shaft 4 Skeletal material 401 Seat plate 402 Beam 403 Hole 5 Arc-shaped material 6 Coating material 7 Pulley 8 Electric winch 9 Rope 10 Rotation bearing 11 Rotation bearing 12 Thrust bearing 13 Large pulley 14 Small pulley 15 Drive belt 16 Upper connecting beam 17 Lower connecting beam 20 Generator 21 Electric control panel 22 Operation panel 23 Slip ring 30 Mount 31 Mount upper beam 32 Mount intermediate beam 33 Mount lower beam 34 Anemometer

Claims (8)

In a wind turbine generator having a Savonius type windmill and a generator connected to the windmill,
The wing of a windmill has a structure in which a skeletal material is covered with a flexible material such as cloth,
A wind power generator having a structure that can be expanded and expanded or folded and reduced as required. In the wind power generator according to claim 1,
A wind power generator, wherein the blades of the wind turbine have a structure in which the skeletal material is deployed or folded by moving the skeleton material in the direction of the rotation axis of the wind turbine. In the wind power generator according to claim 1,
The wing of the windmill has a structure that expands or folds by moving the skeleton in the direction of the rotation axis of the windmill,
A wind power generation device having a structure in which two or more blades having the same structure are stacked in the direction of the rotation axis, wherein the phases in the rotation direction of the blades in each stage are different. The wind power generator according to claim 2 or 3,
A wind power generator having a structure in which the frame material of the blade of the wind turbine is lifted or suspended by a rope that rotates integrally with the rotating shaft when moving. The wind power generator according to claim 2 or 3,
When lifted and deployed or suspended and folded by the rope rotating integrally with the rotating shaft to move the skeletal material of the windmill wings,
A wind power generator having a structure in which the rope is wound or unwound with an electric winch. The wind power generator according to claim 5,
When the wind speed or the rotation speed of the windmill exceeds a preset value, the rope is automatically rewound with the electric winch to fold the wing of the windmill,
Further, when the wind speed does not exceed a preset value, the electric winch automatically winds up the rope to deploy the wing of the windmill. The wind power generator according to claim 5,
A battery for storing the power generated by the generator,
A wind power generator, wherein electric power for driving the electric winch is supplied from the battery. The wind power generator according to claim 7,
A wind power generation system capable of directly supplying DC power to an external load from the battery.

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