Parametric Investigation of Gurney Flaps for the Use on Wind Turbine Blades

Author(s):  
Joerg Alber ◽  
Georgios Pechlivanoglou ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit ◽  
Jochen Twele ◽  
Guido Weinzierl

This paper presents a strategy to model the aerodynamic Gurney flap effect on two-dimensional airfoils and subsequently on the rotor blade performance of horizontal axis wind turbines. The first part consists of the parametric investigation of 26 airfoil polar data-sets, derived from different, but comparable, wind tunnel experiments. They are evaluated and processed in terms of the lift and drag increase caused by Gurney flaps in comparison to each Baseline configuration. Consequently, a model is developed, transforming Baseline- into Gurney flap polar data for varying flap-heights. The results of the emerging Gurney Flap Polar Calculator are validated against the experimental lift and drag curves. In the second part, the blade design of the NREL 5 MW Reference Turbine is modified by implementing polar data-sets of varying Gurney flap-heights, which are imported into the rotor simulation software QBlade. Thereupon, blade optimization strategies are examined regarding the two main Gurney flap applications on rotor blades: the retrofit and the design solution. The optimized retrofit solution on existing blades indicates power performance improvements, albeit at the expense of increasing structural loads. The optimized design solution on to-be-constructed blades, on the other hand, suggests chord-length reductions, while keeping the performance characteristics on a similar or even enhanced level. It is concluded that aerodynamic improvements are achieved by relatively small Gurney flap-heights, which are applied at specific blade positions.

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1877
Author(s):  
Piotr Wiśniewski ◽  
Francesco Balduzzi ◽  
Zbigniew Buliński ◽  
Alessandro Bianchini

The disclosing of new diffusion frontiers for wind energy, like deep-water offshore applications or installations in urban environments, is putting new focus on Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs). To partially fill the efficiency gap of these turbines, aerodynamic developments are still needed. This work in particular focuses on the development of a mathematical model that allows predicting the possible performance improvements enabled in a VAWT by application of the Gurney flaps (GFs) as a function of the blade thickness, the rotor solidity and geometry of the Gurney flap itself. The performance of airfoil with GFs was evaluated by means of detailed simulations making use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The accuracy of the CFD model was assessed against the results of a dedicated experimental study. In the simulations, a dedicated method to simulate cycles of variation of the angle of attack similar to those taking place in a cycloidal motion (rather than purely sinusoidal ones) was also developed. Based on the results from CFD, a multidimensional interpolation based on the radial basis functions was conducted in order to find the GF design solution that provides the highest efficiency for a given turbine in terms of airfoil and solidity. The results showed that, for the selected study cases based on symmetric airfoils, the GF positioned facing outwards from the turbine, which provides the upwind part of the revolution, can lead to power increments ranging from approximately 30% for the lower-solidity turbine up to 90% for the higher-solidity turbine. It was also shown that the introduction of a GF should be coupled with a re-optimization of the airfoil thickness to maximize the performance.


Open Physics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 927-934
Author(s):  
Tao Song ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Hengxuan Zhu ◽  
Min Zeng ◽  
Jin Wang

Abstract Normal operation of gas turbines will be affected by deposition on turbine blades from particles mixed in fuels. This research shows that it is difficult to monitor the mass of the particles deposition on the wall surface in real time. With development of electronic technology, the antenna made of printed circuit board (PCB) has been widely used in many industrial fields. Microstrip antenna is first proposed for monitoring particles deposition to analyse the deposition law of the particles accumulated on the wall. The simulation software Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio (CST MWS) 2015 is used to conduct the optimization design of the PCB substrate antenna. It is found that the S11 of vivaldi antenna with arc gradient groove exhibits a monotonous increase with the increase of dielectric layer thickness, and this antenna is highly sensitive to the dielectric layer thickness. Moreover, a cold-state test is carried out by using atomized wax to simulate the deposition of pollutants. A relationship as a four number of times function is found between the capacitance and the deposited mass. These results provide an important reference for the mass detection of the particle deposition on the wall, and this method is suitable for other related engineering fields.


2018 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 02004
Author(s):  
M. Rajaram Narayanan ◽  
S. Nallusamy ◽  
M. Ragesh Sathiyan

In the global scenario, wind turbines and their aerodynamics are always subjected to constant research for increasing their efficiency which converts the abundant wind energy into usable electrical energy. In this research, an attempt is made to increase the efficiency through the changes in surface topology of wind turbines through computational fluid dynamics. Dimples on the other hand are very efficient in reducing air drag as is it evident from the reduction of drag and increase in lift in golf balls. The predominant factors influencing the efficiency of the wind turbines are lift and drag which are to be maximized and minimized respectively. In this research, surface of turbine blades are integrated with dimples of various sizes and arrangements and are analyzed using computational fluid dynamics to obtain an optimum combination. The analysis result shows that there is an increase in power with about 15% increase in efficiency. Hence, integration of dimples on the surface of wind turbine blades has helped in increasing the overall efficiency of the wind turbine.


2012 ◽  
Vol 155-156 ◽  
pp. 12-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lian Xu Wang ◽  
Da Wei Qu ◽  
Chang Qing Song ◽  
Ye Tian

To research the performance optimization of high speed car diesel engine,firstly according to the characteristic of car diesel engine with Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT), one-dimensional cycle model of the engine was established by using simulation software BOOST and validated by experimental data in this paper. The turbine blades’ opening corresponding to different speed was determined. Therefore the problem that the VNT surges at low engine speed and the inlet air flow is insufficient at high speed was solved. Based on the above model, this paper improved the efficiency of the engine by optimizing the compression ratio and the distribution phase of camshaft and then used the experimental data to check the simulation results. Meanwhile the fuel consumption and the possibility of the engine operation roughness decreased.


2016 ◽  
Vol 877 ◽  
pp. 668-673
Author(s):  
Bo Liu ◽  
Zhong Cai Qiu ◽  
Qin Yang ◽  
Ke Wang ◽  
Xian He Wu

An aluminium cross car beam (CCB) for new energy is designed with CATIA. And then,modal analysis is taken by using simulation software-NASTRAN. As nature frequencies can't meet the design target, optimization is performed according to the modal strain energy contour. After structure is strengthen, the first vertical nature frequency of the aluminum CCB(mounted on trimmed car body,with closures and interiors) reaches 35.4Hz.While the first lateral nature frequency reaches 36.5 Hz. Besides,comparing to steel CCB,the weight of the aluminum CCB reduces by4.4 kilogram.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Zayed Almheiri ◽  
Rawan Aleid ◽  
Sharul Sham Dol

The purpose of this research is to conduct aerodynamics study and design a hybrid drone system of fixed-wing and multi-copter. The mission of this drone is to measure human body temperature during COVID19 pandemic. The specific aim of the drone is to fly and cover larger industrial areas roughly about 50 km2 with longer flying time than the conventional drone, of about 1.5 hours. The applications of the simulation software such as XFLR5 and ANSYS have a big impact in identifying areas that need to be improved for the drone system. XFLR5 software was used to compare the characteristics of different airfoils with highest lift over drag, L/D ratio. Based on the airfoil selection, it was found that NACA 4412 airfoil produces the highest L/D ratio. The detailed geometry of the drone system includes a fuselage length of 1.9 meters and wingspan of 2 meters. Moreover, 10 sheets of solar panels were placed along the wing for sustainable flight operation to cover wider areas of mission. The structural analysis was done on ANSYS to test the elastic stress, equivalent strain, deformation, factor of safety pressure as well as lift and drag forces under various operational conditions and payloads. The landing gear was analyzed for harsh landing. ANSYS Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was utilized to study the aerodynamics of the drone at different parameters such as the velocities and angles of attack during the operation. This design ensures the stability of the drone during the temperature measurement phase. The best thermal-imaging camera for such purpose would be the Vue Pro R 336, 45° radiometric drone thermal camera with a resolution of 640 x 512 pixels. This camera has the advantage of a permanent continuous out focus that give the ability of taking measurements even if there was changing on the altitude or any kind of vibrations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 512-515 ◽  
pp. 623-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan Li Zhao ◽  
Xiao Lei Zheng

Numerical investigation of large thick and low Reynolds airfoil of wind turbines by mounting indented Gurney flaps was carried out. The influenced rules of the position of Gurney flaps on the aerodynamic performance of airfoil under same height of flaps were achieved, and the optimal position of Gurney flap was presented. At last, the mechanism of wind turbine performance controlled by Gurney flap was discussed. The results can provide the theoretical guidance and technical support to wind turbines control in practical engineering.


Author(s):  
Matthew Lennie ◽  
Georgios Pechlivanoglou ◽  
David Marten ◽  
Christian Navid Nayeri ◽  
Oliver Paschereit

To certify a Wind Turbine the standard processes set out by the GL guidelines and the IEC61400 demand a large number of simulations in order to justify the safe operation of the machine in all reasonably probable scenarios. The result of this rather demanding process is that the simulations rely on lower fidelity methods such as the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) method. The BEM method relies on a number of simplified inputs including the coefficient of lift and drag polar data (usually referred to as polars). These polars are usually either measured experimentally, generated using tools such as XFoil or, in some cases obtained using 2D CFD. It is typical to then modify these polars in order to make them suitable for aeroelastic simulations. Some of these modifications include 360° angle of attack extrapolation methods and polar modifications to account for 3D effects. Many of these modifications can be perceived to be a black art due to the manual selection of coefficients. The polars can misrepresent reality for many reasons, for example, inflow turbulence can affect measurements obtained in wind tunnels. Furthermore, on real wind turbine blades leading edge erosion can reduce performance. Simulated polars can even vary significantly due to the choice of turbulence models. Stack these effects on top of the uncertainties caused by yaw error, pitch error and dynamic stall and one can clearly see an operating environment hostile to accurate simulations. Colloquial evidence suggests that experienced designers would account for all of these sources of errors methodically, however, this is not reflected by the certification process. A review of experimental data and literature was performed to identify some of the inaccuracies in wind turbine polars. Significant variations were found between a range of 2D polar techniques and wind tunnel measurements. A sensitivity study was conducted using the aeroelastic simulation code FAST (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) with lift and drag polars sourced using different methods. The results were post-processed to give comparisons the rotor blade fatigue damage; variations in accumulated damages reached levels of 164%. This variation is not disastrous but is certainly enough to motivate a new approach for certifying the aerodynamic performance of wind turbines. Such an approach would simply see the source of polar data and all post-processing steps documented and included in the checks performed by certification bodies.


Author(s):  
D. Holst ◽  
A. B. Bach ◽  
C. N. Nayeri ◽  
C. O. Paschereit ◽  
G. Pechlivanoglou

The results of stereo Particle-Image-Velocimetry measurements are presented in this paper to gain further insight into the wake of a finite width Gurney flap. It is attached to an FX 63-137 airfoil which is known for a very good performance at low Reynolds numbers and is therefore used for small wind turbines and is most appropriate for tests in the low speed wind tunnel presented in this study. The Gurney flaps are a promising concept for load control on wind turbines but can have adverse side effects, e.g. shedding of additional vortices. The investigation focuses on frequencies and velocity distributions in the wake as well as on the structure of the induced tip vortices. Phase averaged velocity fields are derived of a Proper-Orthogonal-Decomposition based on the stereo PIV measurements. Additional hot-wire measurements were conducted to analyze the fluctuations downstream of the finite width Gurney flaps. Experiments indicate a general tip vortex structure that is independent from flap length but altered by the periodic shedding downstream of the flap. The influence of Gurney flaps on a small wind turbine is investigated by simulating a small 40 kW turbine in Q-Blade. They can serve as power control without the need of an active pitch system and the starting performance is additionally improved. The application of Gurney flaps imply tonal frequencies in the wake of the blade. Simulation results are used to estimate the resulting frequencies. However, the solution of Gurney flaps is a good candidate for large scale wind turbine implementation as well. A FAST simulation of the NREL 5MW turbine is used to generate realistic time series of the lift. The estimations of control capabilities predict a reduction in the standard deviation of the lift of up to 65%. Therefore finite width Gurney flaps are promising to extend the lifetime of future wind turbines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benarfaoui Arfaoui ◽  
Mohamed Taher Bouzaher ◽  
Belhi Guerira ◽  
Charaf-Eddine Bensaci

Abstract This study investigates the energy extraction mechanism by means of swing arm turbine. The swing arm turbines have a particular motion pattern. The pure translation motion in the conventional flapping turbine changes based on the swing arm rotation. The laminar flow around a NACA0015 is resolved using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The turbine blades are equipped with an oscillating gurney flap for trying to boost the system efficiency. The connected gurney flap oscillates with a given pitching angle. A user-defined function and the sliding dynamic mesh technique available in ansys fluent version 15 are used to adjust both the blade and the flap positions during the turbine flapping cycle. The effects of the swing factor and the flap length on the system performance are provided. It is shown that the suggested strategy of control is able to alter the pressure distribution during both the up stroke and down stroke phases, which changes the blade aerodynamic forces during all the flapping cycle portions and therefore improving the turbine efficiency.


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