Myself and a few other mech eng students have built a vertical axis wind turbine. To make power we are using a custom built 3-phase 12 pole brushless motor/alternator. This alternator puts out 3-phase AC of varying frequency and voltage, basically a max of 36V and about 30A continuous. We then rectify this AC to charge a battery bank. This turbine is NON-SELF STARTING design, so the turbine must be driven up to a certain speed before the wind can take over.
We have a PIC-based control system that monitors wind speed and the turbine/alternators absolute position and rpm. It will be determining when to start, brake, or otherwise control the turbines output. It can output motor position in any form a controller might want, its just a matter of programming.
Basically the turbine has 3 needed functions for a controller:
1.) Power generation. Basically the same as regen, torque from the airfoils drives the BLDC as an alternator to charge the batteries. This would be the default and most common use of the controller.
2.) Startup. The BLDC is run as a motor, ideally with some kind of control using PWM so the current can be conrolled. It shoudl be able to start the BLDC from 0 rpm to around 300
3.) Braking. When the wind gets too high or the batteries are full, we need to brake the alternator by shorting its phases together, PWM is necessary here too, alternating between shorting of the coils and regen function.
So, any electronics gurus in here think a bike bldc controller could be made to work, or perhaps and open source controller be easily adapted? Our electronics knowledge is OK but not to the point where we could start from scratch and have a nice elegant system.
Anyways heres a pic of the turbine for encouragement:
We have a PIC-based control system that monitors wind speed and the turbine/alternators absolute position and rpm. It will be determining when to start, brake, or otherwise control the turbines output. It can output motor position in any form a controller might want, its just a matter of programming.
Basically the turbine has 3 needed functions for a controller:
1.) Power generation. Basically the same as regen, torque from the airfoils drives the BLDC as an alternator to charge the batteries. This would be the default and most common use of the controller.
2.) Startup. The BLDC is run as a motor, ideally with some kind of control using PWM so the current can be conrolled. It shoudl be able to start the BLDC from 0 rpm to around 300
3.) Braking. When the wind gets too high or the batteries are full, we need to brake the alternator by shorting its phases together, PWM is necessary here too, alternating between shorting of the coils and regen function.
So, any electronics gurus in here think a bike bldc controller could be made to work, or perhaps and open source controller be easily adapted? Our electronics knowledge is OK but not to the point where we could start from scratch and have a nice elegant system.
Anyways heres a pic of the turbine for encouragement:
