hi folks,
thinking to myself how many times the impossible happens, (i know the answer to this)...
should i have a tail furling system in addition to a motor driven pointing system - ie., the electromechanical pointing system would point the mill steadily out of the wind as the high winds build, optimizing as much as possible, but if the unit just happens to get hit by lightning, makes it past the arrestors and the shielding, and fries my processor at that exact moment, the tail at a slightly higher wind speed (before blade breakup) would move the the rotor out of the wind mechanically -
can i assume this is not overkill? this will be a 16-20' mill
i have logged numerous transverse winds which wipe across the pasture at the same time most of my productive wind is present - if i could keep the mill from hunting and staggering at these times, build in a delay before the head rotates, i may be able to optimize things quite a bit - the question is,
what happens in terms of stress and turbulence at the tail when a transverse wind jams against it when the mill is locked into the "true" wind direction? most commercial units only have a nacelle, so this isn't an issue...
(if your wondering why i want to spend money on a pointing system, i happen to have the pieces and parts sitting around, and i am working on a motion control project with very similar software needs)
thoughts?
thanks,
warren