Wind Turbine Blades and Wind Speed Performance

[bacnka]

I wonder if anyone could shed some light or information about the subject I'm looking into.

How will wind turbines with varied amounts of blades perform in varied wind speeds. E.g. the less amount of blades you have the better a turbine will perform at higher wind speeds?

Any help on the matter, references, links or just general knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Danger]

It's not my subject, but one general rule is that a turbine with a lot of small blades turns a lot faster than a big one with 3 or 4. I think that the big ones have more torque, though, and more angular momentum to help regulate their speed. I'm not even sure about that, but it seems reasonable to me.

 

[rcgldr]

Similar to a glider with a long wingspan having a better lift to drag ratio than a shorter wingspan model, a longer 2 bladed prop with the same thrust and velocity as a smaller 3 bladed prop will have less drag. In the extreme case, sometimes a single counterbalanced blade prop is used for some model aircraft. I don't know if the same applies to wind powered generators. For aircraft, ground clearance limits the diameter of the prop which is why you have 3 and 4 bladed props on some aircraft.