Ion Paraschivoiu is Aeronautical Chair Professor at École Polytechnique de Montréal and he brings to the cornucopia of new books on wind energy his specialty: Darrieus turbines.
Wind Turbine Design: With Emphasis on Darrieus Concept by Ion Paraschivoiu
Like David Spera in Wind Turbine Technology (1994), Paraschivoiu seeks to document for posterity the status of a technology. Spera chronicled the results from two decades of research by the U.S. Government and its contractors. Paraschivoiu does the same in the Canadian context, where the Darrieus or more specifically the phi-configuration Darrieus was reinvented by R. Rangi and P. South during the heyday of centrally-directed research in Canada. The Canadian wind program almost exclusively focused on Darrieus technology from the 1970s into the 1990s.
The wind turbine, whether it may be a Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) or a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT), offers. Ion Paraschivoiu; Published 2002.
Paraschivoiu's book includes not only laboratory measurements on Darrieus performance, but also data from prototypes operating in the field in both Canada and the United States. His principle contribution, Paraschivoiu believes, is a design model for Darrieus turbines using double-multiple stream tubes.
As a proponent of Darrieus turbines Paraschivoiu argues that vertical-axis wind turbines are environmentally preferred to conventional horizontal-axis turbines--a contention that will surely be contested. He argues, for example, that VAWTs produce less noise than conventional turbines because they operate at lower tip-speed ratios. Similarly, VAWTs cause less electromagnetic interference than conventional turbines he says. Most contentious is his claim that medium-size VAWTs are aesthetically more acceptable than conventional turbines based on a 1987 opinion survey by Southern California Edison of reaction to a 500 kW DAF-InDal turbine at SCE's test site in the San Gorgonio Pass.
The strong point of Paraschivoiu's book is his emphasis on charting the results of actual tests. While there's more than enough theory for any hardened engineer, the book is chocked full of charts documenting the performance of a long line of experimental and some commercial Darrieus turbines.
The appendix also includes a useful list of web sites of wind organizations worldwide, something missing from the other new books on wind energy.
The book's only weakness is the lack of photographs, especially of Canadian turbines and of the more obscure experimental Darrieus turbines once developed in the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and Germany; illustratons of which would be beneficial for future designers.
Wind Turbine Design is probably the definitive work on Darrieus technology.
Wind Turbine Design: With Emphasis on Darrieus Concept by Ion Paraschivoiu, ISBN: 2-553-00931-3, 18.5 cm x 23 cm (~7 x 9 inches), 590 pages, $145,00 CAN, $116.00 US, 2002. Available from École Polytechnique de Montréal, [email protected], www.polymtl.ca/pub.
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