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Material optimization of flexible blades for wind turbines

Author

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  • Cognet, V.
  • Courrech du Pont, S.
  • Thiria, B.

Abstract

Bioinspired flexible blades have been recently shown to significantly improve the versatility of horizontal-axis wind turbines, by widening their working range and increasing their efficiency. The aerodynamic and centrifugal forces bend the blade along its chord, varying the pitch angle by means of non-consuming mechanisms. Here we introduce a general method based on a universal scaling, which finds the optimal soft materials for the blades to maximize the overall turbine efficiency or rotational power, for any required geometry of classical horizontal-axis turbines. The optimization problem, which depends on various parameters, such as the wind velocity, the rotation rate, the density, the rigidity and the geometry of the blade, is reduced to only two dimensionless parameters: the Cauchy number and the centrifugal number. The blade-element momentum theory is coupled to a torsion spring-based model for the blade deformation. Taking into account realistic incoming wind-velocity distributions in the North Sea and a large wind-turbine geometry, we found a significant increase of the total harvested power, up to +35%. In addition, the optimal soft material corresponding to the maximal efficiency over the entire working range for a given wind turbine geometry is, within the limits of small blade deformations, scale-independent. Thus experiments on small wind turbines are a possible way to determine the optimal soft materials for larger ones. These flexible blades are found to be between 5% and 20% lighter than the current rigid blades.

Suggested Citation

  • Cognet, V. & Courrech du Pont, S. & Thiria, B., 2020. "Material optimization of flexible blades for wind turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1373-1384.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:160:y:2020:i:c:p:1373-1384
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.188
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. José Luis Torres-Madroñero & Joham Alvarez-Montoya & Daniel Restrepo-Montoya & Jorge Mario Tamayo-Avendaño & César Nieto-Londoño & Julián Sierra-Pérez, 2020. "Technological and Operational Aspects That Limit Small Wind Turbines Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-39, November.

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