EFFICIENCY AND LOSS CALCULATIONS OF A GEARLESS WIND POWER TRANSFER SYSTEM

Abstract

A gearless hydraulic wind energy transfer system utilizes the hydraulic power transmission principles to integrate the energy of multiple wind tur-bines in a central power generation location. A Hydraulic Transmission (HT) can transmit high power and can operate over a wide range of torque-to-speed ratios, allowing the transmission of intermittent wind power. The torque to speed ratios illustrates the relationship between the torque and speed of a motor (or pump) from the moment of start to when full-load torque is reached at the rated speed, provided by the manufacturer. This ra-tio determines the power capacity of the motor (or pump). The efficiency of a HT is dependent on several parameters including volu-metric flow rate, rotational speed and torque at the pump shaft, and the pressure difference across the inlet and outlet of the hydraulic pump and motor. In this poster, experimental data will be collected to determine the efficiency of a closed loop hydraulic transmission that integrates multiple wind turbines. The configuration will be modified to include multiple pumps and motors to determine how the efficiency of the system can be improved. This research was supported by IUPUI Solution Center.