Wind Tunnel

To establish and test the superior efficiency of the GURV design concept a controlled wind flow was required. It was decided to fabricate a wind tunnel which could generate wind flow of few KMPH to above 100 KMPH.

We started with an over ambitious size of wind tunnel size of 10’x14′ to drive a GURV wind turbine of Blade size of 4’x8′ with a capacity to generate 15 KVA at low wind speeds. The tunnel design consisted of 31 pcs of 24″ exhaust fans mounted in a panel formation and driven by 31 no’s of 1.5 KW DC motors. These fans were designed to reach speeds above 3000 RPM. A control cum drive system using IGBT controls was fabricated to drive all the 31 motors at the same speed with single control.

An floor based structure was created to link GURV turbine and the flow of the wind tunnel with firm floor mountings. Due to space limitations the length of the tunnel was kept to 12′, which proved limitation in smooth flow of air. Another lesson learned was that the tunnel fan drive should have been based on suction rather than forced flow. Drive power requirements were also proved under estimated leading to failures at 45 KMPH wind speed. Overall the tunnel and turbine combination could not reach its desired goals hence had to be abandoned.