Design and realisation of a high-performance active pitchcontrolled H-Darrieus VAWT for urban installations

M. Mauri, I. Bayati, M. Belloli*

*Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Meccanica, Via La Masa 1, 20156, Milano, Italy
Keywords: VAWT Turbine, pitch control, wind turbine.

Abstract
This paper reports the design of a 33m (diameter/height)
pitch-controlled lift based H-Darrieus VAWT for urban
installations. Among others, this type of wind-turbine was
chosen for the potential feature modifications with respect to
the classical fixed-pitch concept, such as self-starting mode
for standalone applications and active pitch control efficiency.
Preliminary results in terms of design optimization are
presented.

1 Introduction
Small wind turbines are being increasingly considered for
urban installations, as reported by WWEA (World Wind
Energy Association) report. In particular, from 2011 more
than 730,000 small wind turbines have been installed. The
Chinese market is the biggest with 500,000 installed units and
it represents the 68% of the entire market.

Fig 1. Wind turbine producers expertise

The mean generated power of a single turbine has been

increased from 0.66 kW in 2010 to 0.77 kW in 2011 and in
2012 the last installations have a mean power of 1.6 kW.
Regarding the types of wind turbines, it is possible to have
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) or Vertical Axis
Wind Turbines (VAWT). HAWT represents the configuration
more available in the market due to the largest investment and
scientific research. These wind turbines are also the more
efficient and they are widely adopted in the realisation of
wind parks.
However, in the last year the market of VAWT has been
rapidly increased due to the easily realisation in particular for
small plants and, as it is possible to see in Fig. 1, the 18% of
the wind turbine producers are specialized in the realisation of
VAWT, even if the low mean power and the low peak
generated power are the bottleneck that prevents the
widespread of VAWT.

2 VAWT characteristics
The Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) present different
realisations. In particular, it is possible to distinguish three
different type: Savonius turbine, Darrieus turbine and HDarrieus turbine or cycle-turbine. [1-4]
The main characteristic of a VAWT is that it works for any
wind direction. This characteristic allows using this turbine
where the wind is very turbulent like in mountain or urban
zones. Moreover, the presence of a vertical axis allows
concentrating the electric equipment at ground level
simplifying the installation procedure and in addiction the
VAWT presents lower noise level respect the HAWT. This
characteristic allows installing VAWT in residential zone or
even on the building roof. In the following sections the main
differences between these turbines are presented.
2.2 Drag-based Turbines (Savonius turbines)
The Savonius turbine has been designed in 1922 and it works
for low wind speed. It presents a typical S shape and rotate by
means of the drag forces FD (Fig. 3). For these reason, it is a
self-starting turbine. It presents a very low efficiency and it is
used only where the reliability, the low cost and simplicity of
installation are more important than the generation efficiency.
2.3 Lift-based turbines (Darrieus turbines)

Fig 2. Wind turbine producer world distribution

The Darrieus turbine and the H-Darrieus turbine are very

similar and they convert the wind energy by means of lift