Hurricane Bawbag is blowing a gale, it's so bad I nearly lost my scarf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag PS, not my video.
Yeah, it seems to have went viral. TBH it is quite windy, but nothing like it's being made out to be by the news - although 160MPH up north is a bit different.
Really? Is that the motors burning out or something? I thought they turned the wind farms off when it got too windy? (as in put a brake on them, before some smart arse comes along and says you can't turn them off, ). *edit* It was turned off, some electrical short.
They do put a brake on them but sometimes that's not enough and the brake simply acts as a friction disk to overheat it. What would work would probably be a system to angle the blades so they presented the least surface area to the wind.
yup, that's it. The blades work in the same way as an aircraft wing, they simply angle them to produce no 'lift'. The problem arises when the wind gusts and changes direction.
aye I can confirm its very windy up north, just 50miles away from aberdeen and wheelie bins are dropping like flys 1 every 10mins, just watched a horse box get blown across a carpark. keep getting power dropouts.
Full blade pitch control does virtually eliminate the lift force, but there's still a (smaller) brake required to stop it completely and to prevent it rotating when the wind changes direction. It's been breezy down here but nothing near damaging.
One of my favourite videos! I can't quite decide if a blade deforms and hits the support column or if the column flexes enough to allow the blade to contact it (or both!)