Purpose of the project is to explore the applicability of low-cost natural (wood) materials for the production of wind turbines to promote the electrification of dry and windy areas of Nepal . The project includes a comprehensive program of testing of mechanical and fatigue properties of timbers and coatings for wind turbine blades, computational micromechanical analysis of the properties- microstructure relationships of wood, as well as the development, installation and field testing of small wind turbines with wooden blades in Nepal.
Project leader: Leon Mishnaevsky Jr., Dr.-Ing. habil. Other Risø DTU participants: Povl Brøndsted, Jakob Bech, Hai Qing (now at Siemens)
Partners in Nepal: Pramod Ghimire, and Chudamani Lamichhnae (Managers), Ranjan Sharma and Rakesh Sinha (Scientists), Kathmandu Power and Energy Group (KAPEG): Rakesh Shresta, Jun Hada and Pushkar Manandhar, Practical Action Nepal.
SOME RESULTS, PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS:
- Paper “Small wind turbines with timber blades for developing countries: Materials choice, development, installation and experiences”, by L.Mishnaevsky Jr et al., Renewable Energy, 36 (2011) 2128-2138. Preprint of this paper is available here.
- Paper “Selection of Nepalese timber for small wind turbine blade construction”, by R. Sinha, P. Acharya, P. Freere, R. Sharma, P. Ghimire and L. Mishnaevsky, Jr. J Wind Engineering, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2010, pp. 263-276
- Presentation of Leon Mishnaevsky at KAPEG, Dhulikhel, 12.10.2007,
- Paper "Micromechanical modelling of mechanical behaviour and strength of wood: State-of-the-art review" by Leon Mishnaevsky Jr. and Hai Qing, Computational Materials Science, Vol.44, No. 2, 2008, pp. 363-370
- Report of Rakesh Sinha, Engineer, KAPEG, on his stay at Risø.DTU, November-December 2007
- Paper "Strength and reliability of wood for the components of low-cost wind turbines: Computational and experimental analysis and applications”, by L. Mishnaevsky Jr et al., Journal of Wind Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2009 PP 183–196
- Paper “Comparison of test results of various available Nepalese timbers for small wind turbine applications”, by R. Sharma, R. Sinha, P. Acharya, L. Mishnaevsky Jr., P. Freere, published in Proceedings of 3rd International Solar Energy Society Conference – Asia Pacific Region (ISES-AP-08) and 46th ANZSES Conference, 25-28 November 2008, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
- Paper "3D Hierarchical Computational Model of Wood as a Cellular Material with Fibril Reinforced, Heterogeneous Multiple Layers”, by Hai Qing and L. Mishnaevsky Jr, Mechanics of Materials, Vol. 41, 9, 2009, pp. 1034-1049
- Paper “3D multiscale micromechanical model of wood: From annual rings to microfibrils” by H. Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr., Int J Solids and Structures, Vol. 47, No. 9, 1 2010, pp. 1253-1267
- Paper “Fatigue modelling of materials with complex microstructures”, by H. Qing, L. Mishnaevsky Jr., Computational Materials Science, Vol.50, N.5, 2011, pp. 1644-1650
- Paper "Moisture-Related Mechanical Properties of Softwood: 3D Micromechanical Modelling”, by Hai Qing and L. Mishnaevsky Jr, accepted for publication in "Computational Materials Sciences"
- A special issue of the Journal of Wind Engineering, co-edited by Leon, has been published. You can read the Editorial here.
OUR INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOPS:
- Wind Energy for Developing Countries , Pokhara, Nepal, 15-17 November 2010
- Small Scale Wind Energy for Developing Countries , September 14-16, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya
- Natural and Low–Cost Materials in Wind Energy Technologies, Dhulikhel, Nepal, 10-12 November 2008