Novel of vertical axis wind turbine with variable swept area using fuzzy logic controller

This paper presents a new approach to wind turbine power generation. A vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) is capable of achieving a constant power output regardless of wind speed, using variable swept area (VSA) as smart rotors which are adjustable for height and width adjusted with actuators. The VSA housing is connected to a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) and a DC-DC boost converter. The VSA rotors are controlled by a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) to maintain a constant power rating at the PMSG. The variable inputs of FLC are based on wind speed and are then broken down into cluster groups, each of which represents a wind speed range which is assigned a position through the FLC. The cluster groups determine the VSA size which compensates for the non-linear characteristics of the wind speed to get a consistent power rating for the PMSG. The experimental of VSA system is tested with wind speed variation from 0 to 12 m/s. The VSA velocity movement is limited from 0.75 m² to 1.87 m². The VSA extension increase 33% to tap constant power at 200 Watt when wind speed decreases from 12 to 10 m/s. The result of proposed method is compared with fixed swept area (FSA), so that the VSA achieved four times increase in efficiency greater than FSA, and the VSA system can be operated at wider range of wind speeds.