Preliminary Assessment of Wind Turbine Blade Lift Control via Plasma Actuation

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and computational study to assess the potential of plasma actuators to alter the lift of airfoils in view of controlling the output power of wind turbines under high wind conditions. Plasma actuators are electro-fluidic devices that create a jet adjacent to the surface. The proposed concept involves installing an actuator on the blade suction surface pointing in the upstream direction to induce and control boundary layer separation. Experiments have been carried in a subsonic wind tunnel, at angles of attack (AOA) in the range 0–15°, for velocities of 12.60 and 16.30 m/s, on a 6-inch chord untwisted 2–D blade. The aerodynamic balance force measurements show a reduction of lift coefficient for all the AOA. Flow fields obtained by PIV demonstrate that depending of the AOA, the actuator thickens the boundary layer, induces or amplifies its separation. The CFD simulations reproduce the experimental trends. Thus, plasma actuators are potentially efficient devices for lift control over a wind turbine blade.