Improvement of Wind Turbine Blade Performance by Means of Rod Vortex Generators

Abstract

Wind turbines are complex energy conversion fluid-flow machines which entail coupled aero-mechanical issues. From an aero-acoustical point of view, wind turbine blades present two main problems: first, a reduced aerodynamic performance due to flow separation, and second, the level of noise emissions. Flow separation appears on the blade as a result of high angles of attack causing a decrease in the aerodynamic efficiency. In this chapter, the application of rod vortex generators (RVGs) to control and decrease the flow separation—by the creation of streamwise vorticity on the blade—is presented. The NREL Phase VI wind turbine rotor and the S809 airfoil are used as reference cases. The validation of NREL Phase VI model rotor against experimental data is found to be satisfactory. A study into the effects of RVGs’ chordwise location and spanwise distance is presented for selected cases and a range of inflow conditions. It is shown that the proposed RVGs lead to an improvement of the aerodynamic performance, and can be successfully applied by the wind energy industry.