Performance of tornado wind energy conversion systems

The flow characteristics and power production capabilities of the Tornado Wind Energy Conversion System (TWECS) are examined. Experimental results indicate that the confined vortex in the tower of TWECS rotates approximately as a solid body and only supplements total power production, most of which comes from the tower acting as a bluff body. Wrapped tower experiments were performed by fitting a plastic shroud 360 deg around the tower from the top of the bottom inlet to the tower exit level which transformed the TWECS into a hollow, raised cylinder. Coefficient of power is compared for louvered towers vs. wrapped tower. The fact that the wrapped tower performs as well as the louvered tower suggests that it is the pressure difference between the bottom inlet region and the region above the tower (where the pressure of the ambient flow will be somewhat reduced owing to its acceleration over the bluff body of the tower) which determines the vertical force on the fluid within the tower.