Performance assessment of bamboo blade wind turbine as a green composite

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of using eco-friendly turbine blades made from compressed bamboo orthotropic wood as a replacement for conventional FRP composite blade. A prototype windmill was fabricated with treated Dendrocalamus strictus bamboo blade and performance as a wind turbine is compared with conventional FRP blade. The mass of bamboo blade is about 20% more than the latter one. A 12V 100Ah battery was used to regulate the power output to a connected load of 15 Q 10W. The prototype mill made of CFRP composite blade running at 267rpm at a wind speed of 2.5 m/s produced 1.1W output, while the bamboo blade wind mill that 0.7 times less blade length at similar conditions produced 0.95W output, even though modulus and strength of the compressed bamboo wood is less than FRP blade configuration.