| The off-shore and on-shore wind farms are well known, but recently a new application for wind turbines has attracted significant interest from architects, engineers and developers, namely the building-integration wind turbine (BIWT). Several prototype BIWT projects have been developed in Hong Kong, mainland China and other countries, and it is estimated that future urban wind turbines can produce a substantial amount of energy if they are integrated into urban buildings. However, the integration of large rotating machines into buildings has some structural effects on the buildings, like noise and vibration transmissions. The purpose of this project was thus to develop a novel Axial Passive Magnetic Bearing System (APMBS) and to investigate its application in Building Integrated Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (BIVAWT) for wind power generation from buildings in urban areas.;An axial passive magnetic bearing system was then invented, which is thought to be best suited for the VAWTs at inner city locations due to its vibration dampening character, low maintenance and low friction. This novel and special Axial Passive Magnetic Bearing System (APMBS) was developed specifically to minimize the transmission of vibrations to buildings. This permanent magnetic bearing is much cheaper and simpler than traditional magnetic bearing systems for achieving highly reliable vertical supporting functions.;This innovative bearing system should not only be applied to the VAWTs, but also to other rotating devices like flywheels, which can benefit greatly from such a bearing system. The findings of this study have shown that the novel bearing is very well suited for decoupling the buildings from the turbines for renewable power generation in an urban environment.;This development has been condensed into a patent application and a large VAWT with this bearing system has been designed and constructed for the Hong Kong Water Services Department (HK WSD) for future on-site tests. |
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