Investigation on aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blades coupled with airfoil and herringbone groove structure

Abstract

The advantage of wind energy is significant to the improvement of energy structure. This paper is mainly to demonstrate a bionic design for wind turbine blades inspired by the airfoil of owl wing and the herringbone groove structure of owl feathers. The blade of A 200 W horizontal axis wind turbine is taken as prototype blade. The design of bionic airfoil blade is based on 50% and 70% cross section airfoils of owl wing, which is combined with the parameters of the prototype blade. The design of bionic coupling blade is based on bionic airfoil blade, which is coupled with the herringbone groove structure. Numerical simulation is utilized to study the aerodynamic performance of all blades. These simulations utilize an incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver and shear stress transport k–ω turbulent model at different tip speed ratios (TSRs). Results show that the power coefficient (Cp) of bionic airfoil blades is higher than that of prototype blade in the TSR of 6–9; the Cp of bionic coupling blades is higher than that of bionic airfoil blades in the TSR of 6–10. The larger curvature of leading edge of blades leads to larger flow velocity, which leads to the smaller pressure on the leeward surface. The herringbone groove structure enhances the flow attachment by generating vortices, which reduces the pressure on the leeward surface of bionic coupling blades. Compared with the prototype blade and bionic airfoil blade, the pressure difference between the windward surface and the leeward surface of the bionic coupling blade is larger.