Paper Title
Effects Of Geometric Design Parameters On Discharge Rate Of A Funnel Based Wind Tunnel

Abstract
Renewable energy has seen an increasing development over the decade as a possible replacement for fossil fuels. Wind based power generation has showed a promising potential as efficient and viable way to produce energy than compared to other renewable energy methods. Wind farm are popularly used in countries which has steady wind speeds. The inefficiency of the current horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) is that it is large, have mechanically complex turbines, is also expensive, unwieldy, inefficient, and hazardous to people and wildlife. The funnel based wind turbine eliminates the need to have large towers mounted at sea, increases turbine reliability, and reducesintermittency as well as environmental issues. One of the advantages of the funnel based wind turbine is that it can operate at low wind speeds by capturing wind with the omni-directional intake, accelerating wind velocity by concentrating the wind at the venturi throat by using ground based generator. An increase in wind velocity also increases the power output. The maximum power output is affected by the design parameters which is the funnel height, top curvature radius and angle as well as the funnel intake diameter. The objective is to optimize the power output by analyzing the effect of the changes to the funnel design on the output wind velocity. The funnel was designed using solid modeling software (SolidWorks) and the flow simulation is conducted in ANSYS FLUENT software to determine the velocity output relative to the input. The results show that output wind speed is double of the input speed. Index terms � Funnel Based Wind Turbine, Wind Power, Wind Turbine, Ducted Turbine, Renewable Energy, Omni- Direction