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Wind energy and solar energy are prominent renewable energy options in the view of growing energy demand. Reliable small wind power produced at compatible price is the need of hour. Cost of the energy generation depends on the cost of the materials used, operating and maintenance cost, cost of the fuel. The material cost directly relates to the cost of the energy. Blade design plays significant role in any wind turbine design. In order to have long expected life of blade material selection is a crucial stage in blade design. Wood, Glass fiber, carbon fiber, natural fiber, sandwich composite materials are different material available for small wind turbine blades. Strength, durability, density, cost, and availability are the important properties to be considered during material selection of blade. The selection of material for wind turbine blade is an important stage in blade design. This paper presents a simple Analytic Hierarchy Process for material selection for the small wind turbine blade. AHP is one of the simplest and cost effective decision making method. In this work AHP is successfully applied for material selection for small wind turbine blade.

Abstract-Composite materials have various complicated characteristics according to use of the constituent materials and boundary conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to analyze properties of composite materials. The composite materials are well known by their excellent combination of high structural stiffness and low weight. Their anisotropy allows the designer to tailor the material in order to achieve the desired performance requirements. Thus, it is necessary to develop tools that allow the designer to obtain designs, considering the structural requirements and functional characteristics. For efficient use of composite materials in engineering applications, the dynamic behavior (i.e. natural frequencies) should be known. This paper focuses on the behavior of small wind turbine blades manufactured from composite materials. Two small wind turbine blades are manufactured from the Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) and GFRP with steel wire mesh reinforcement. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was carried out by using finite element software ANSYS 16.0. From FEA theoretical natural frequencies and mode shapes of blades manufactured from the GFRP and GFRP with steel wire mesh reinforcement were obtained. Experimental free vibration test of manufactured blades were carried out to find the practical natural frequencies and mode shapes. Finally the results obtained from the FEA and experimental test for the blade manufactured from GFRP and GFRP with steel wire mesh are compared.

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Wind is a one of the clean resources of energy and has the ability to contribute a considerable share in growing world energy consumption. The small wind turbine plays a vital role in fulfillment of energy needs preferably for household purpose. In order to unleash the budding of applicability of small wind turbine, it is necessary to improve its performance. The performance of a small wind turbine can be distinguished by the manners in which power, thrust and torque vary with the wind speed. The wind power indicates the amount of energy captured by the wind turbine rotor. It is convenient to express the performance of small wind turbine by means of non-dimensional performance curves, therefore in this paper the most graphs are drawn to power, thrust and torque coefficients as a function of the tip speed ratio. This paper presents the effect of design parameters such as the tip speed ratio, angle of attack, wind speed, solidity, number of blades, etc. on the aerodynamic performance of small wind turbine and proposes the optimum values of these parameters for the newly designed blade. The new designed blade consists of two new airfoils and named as IND 15045 and IND 09848. This new profile blade is designed for a wind turbine of 1 kW rated power. The blade is divided into ten sections. The designed length of blade is 1.5 m and it is made using IND 15045 airfoils at three root sections and IND 09848 airfoils for remaining seven sections. Q-Blade is used for the numerical simulation of wind turbine airfoils and blade. It is integrated tool of XFOIL and blade element momentum theory of wind turbine blade design. Also the effect of constant rotational speed operation, effect of stall regulation effect of rotational speed change and the effect of solidity on the performance of wind turbine is discussed. This paper delivers a broad view of perception for design of small wind turbine and parameter selection for the new wind turbine blade. Also in this paper the effect of different losses viz. tip losses, drag losses, stall losses and hub losses on the small wind turbine are discussed. The efficiency of the small wind turbine varies significantly with wind speed, but it would be designed such a way that maximized efficiencies are achieved at the wind speed where the maximum energy is available.