Suppose the wind strikes the windmill turbines as a cylindrical-shaped structure of area A and length V, which is the velocity of the wind.
So, the rate of change of volume of this hypothetical cylinder can be written as:
Volume \(=\) Area \(\times\) Velocity
or \(V^{\prime}=A \times V\)
Here, \(V\) is the velocity while \(V^{\prime}\) is the volume.
We know from Newton’s second law that the force acting on a body is the rate of change of momentum.
We can write it mathematically as,
\(\vec{F}=\frac{d \vec{P}}{d t}\)
This can be rewritten as,
\(\vec{F}=\frac{d(m \vec{V})}{d t}=m \frac{d v}{d t}+V \frac{d m}{d t}\)
Here, the velocity of the wind is constant, so the term \(\frac{d V}{d t}\) is zero.
So, we can write the force acting on the windmill as,
\(\vec{F}=\vec{V} \frac{d m}{d t} \quad\quad\) ......(1)
If the air or the wind has a density of \({\rho}\), then the rate of the mass of the wind that hits the turbine can be written as,
\(\frac{d m}{d t}=\rho A V\quad\quad\).......(2)
So, the force acting on the body is, (substituting equation (2) in (1))
\(\vec{F}=V \rho A V\)
\(F=\rho A V^{2}\)
We now have an equation for the force acting on the windmill. So the power of the windmill can be found out by,
Power \(=\) Force \(\times\) Velocity
Power \(=\left(\rho A V^{2}\right) \times(V)\)
Power \(=\rho A V^{3}\)
Suppose the kinetic energy of the windmill is converted into electrical energy without any loss. The electrical power output of the windmill will be proportional to \(V^3\).