Chiral bladed wind rotor

Exploiting wind energy has been around since remote times: the Dutch began in 1360 with the typical mill to drain the marshland and for the more traditional agricultural work. In the past 30 years, material technological progress has brought on the construction of aerogenerators that range from an average 100 HP to the American aerogenerator of Grandpa’s Knob of 1500 HP. Wind energy has very interesting features: it is widely available, it does not cause pollution, and compared to other sources (e.g. geothermal and solar radiation), it is more advantageous because it is more easily available in mechanical form so being readily transformable into electrical energy. The present work shows the experimental results obtained on a wind rotor with chiralic blades designed to exploit Magnus’ effect. The results attained - generalised on actual dimension rotors - are compared to results obtained on conventional wind blades in order to verify its economical and technological convenience and eventually extend its use in the construction of a pilot wind plant with chiralic blade in fact rotors. This model - differently from traditional ones - has shown how it is possible to obtain an appreciable amount of power even in weak wind conditions (3-4 m/s) allowing wide exploitation of an electrical generator.