Sail Wind Power Stations: Evaluating the Efficiency of Converting Mechanical Energy into Electrical Energy

This study aimed to improve the design of an automatically controlled sail wind power station (SWPS). The peculiarity of the considered SWPS design is that its working body (WB) is rigidly connected to the upper platform of a Sholkor parallel manipulator that has six degrees of freedom. Six actuators connect the manipulator’s upper platform to the fixed lower platform. Each actuator is multifunctional and converts mechanical energy from wind action into electrical energy while controlling the WB’s movements. This wind energy conversion, by which the SWPS’s structural efficiency is evaluated, largely depends on the actuator’s coefficient of performance (CP). To meet the study objective, a prototype actuator was experimentally investigated to establish its efficiency. For this, a new experimental methodology was proposed, which involved sequentially experimenting on wind characteristics to obtain data, establishing a database, processing and preparing the initial data, and conducting a force analysis of the SWPS. Based thereon, the predicted power of the input load on the actuators was determined using Mathcad software. In the experimental setup, this predicted power was used as the actuator’s input, and the experimental value of the generated electrical energy (the output power) gave the actuator prototype’s efficiency. The actuator’s average experimental CP was $$ = 0.56−0.58, which demonstrates that this geometry’s dimensions and parameters are acceptable. The results of the study will be used to improve the design. The article emphasizes the potential of SWPSs for producing wind energy.