IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i18p5025-d1754699.html

Experimental Comparative Analysis of Energy Production in HAWT with Bio-Inspired Active Oscillating Vortex Generators

Author

Listed:
  • Hector G. Parra

    (Full Time Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Cajicá 250247, Colombia)

  • Gabriel H. Castiblanco

    (Full Time Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Cajicá 250247, Colombia)

  • Elvis E. Gaona

    (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá 110231, Colombia)

Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) equipped with and without bio-inspired active oscillating vortex generators (VGs). The experimental investigation examines key aspects of mechanical integration and the resulting variations in aerodynamic behavior, demonstrating measurable improvements in electrical power output. The VGs were designed and implemented using servomechanisms and embedded control systems to enable oscillatory motion during operation. Experimental findings were validated against CFD simulations, indicating that the use of VGs increases annual energy production efficiency by 16.7%, primarily due to the stabilization of wake turbulence. While a reduction in output voltage was observed at wind speeds below 5 m/s, the VGs exhibited enhanced performance under variable wind conditions. These results highlight the potential of combining biomimetic design principles with electronically actuated flow-control devices to advance HAWT technology, improving energy efficiency and contributing to operational sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Hector G. Parra & Gabriel H. Castiblanco & Elvis E. Gaona, 2025. "Experimental Comparative Analysis of Energy Production in HAWT with Bio-Inspired Active Oscillating Vortex Generators," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-17, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:18:p:5025-:d:1754699
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/5025/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/5025/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chengyong Zhu & Tongguang Wang & Jianghai Wu, 2019. "Numerical Investigation of Passive Vortex Generators on a Wind Turbine Airfoil Undergoing Pitch Oscillations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Liao, Ding & Zhu, Shun-Peng & Correia, José A.F.O. & De Jesus, Abílio M.P. & Veljkovic, Milan & Berto, Filippo, 2022. "Fatigue reliability of wind turbines: historical perspectives, recent developments and future prospects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 724-742.
    3. Oh, So Young & Joung, Chanwoo & Lee, Seonghwan & Shim, Yoon-Bo & Lee, Dahun & Cho, Gyu-Eun & Jang, Juhyeong & Lee, In Yong & Park, Young-Bin, 2024. "Condition-based maintenance of wind turbine structures: A state-of-the-art review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    4. Hector G. Parra & Hernan D. Ceron & William Gomez & Elvis E. Gaona, 2023. "Experimental Analysis of Oscillatory Vortex Generators in Wind Turbine Blade," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-14, May.
    5. Moon, Hyeongi & Jeong, Junhee & Park, Sunho & Ha, Kwangtae & Jeong, Jae-Ho, 2023. "Numerical and experimental validation of vortex generator effect on power performance improvement in MW-class wind turbine blade," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 443-454.
    6. Riad Morina & Yahya Erkan Akansu, 2024. "An Experimental Study on the Effectiveness of the Backward-Facing Step Technique on Small-Scale Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Rotor Blades," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Yang, Siyao & Lin, Kun & Zhou, Annan, 2025. "Exploring the performance of horizontal axis wind turbine in yawed turbulent flows through wind tunnel experiments," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    8. Cameron Gerrie & Sheikh Zahidul Islam & Sean Gerrie & Naomi Turner & Taimoor Asim, 2023. "3D CFD Modelling of Performance of a Vertical Axis Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-25, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mustafa Özden & Mustafa Serdar Genç & Kemal Koca, 2023. "Passive Flow Control Application Using Single and Double Vortex Generator on S809 Wind Turbine Airfoil," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Zhu, Chengyong & Qiu, Yingning & Wang, Tongguang, 2021. "Dynamic stall of the wind turbine airfoil and blade undergoing pitch oscillations: A comparative study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Chauhan, Pratham & Ja'fari, Mohammad & Jaworski, Artur J., 2026. "A numerical study of horizonal axis wind turbine blade Contamination: Aerodynamic and sustainable impacts," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PB).
    4. Wang, Longyan & Xu, Yueheng & Fu, Yanxia & Dong, Qiang & Zhang, Bowen & Luo, Zhaohui & Tan, Andy Chit, 2026. "Experimental wind tunnel study on the effect of cyclic yaw rate on wind turbine performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PH).
    5. Zhu, Chengyong & Chen, Jie & Wu, Jianghai & Wang, Tongguang, 2019. "Dynamic stall control of the wind turbine airfoil via single-row and double-row passive vortex generators," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    6. Md Zishan Akhter & Farag Khalifa Omar, 2021. "Review of Flow-Control Devices for Wind-Turbine Performance Enhancement," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-35, February.
    7. Rongyu Zha & Siyuan Wu & Chang Cai & Xiaohui Liu & Dian Wang & Chaoyi Peng & Xuebin Feng & Qiuhua Chen & Xiaohui Zhong & Qing’an Li, 2025. "A Review on Performance Calculation and Design Methodologies for Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Blades," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-23, January.
    8. Zhu, Chengyong & Chen, Jie & Qiu, Yingning & Wang, Tongguang, 2021. "Numerical investigation into rotational augmentation with passive vortex generators on the NREL Phase VI blade," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    9. Hao, Wenxing & Tang, Yi & Li, Chun & Mao, Qianyu & Jin, Dongliang, 2026. "Correction for two-dimensional CFD models of vertical axis wind turbines considering the blade tip vortex effect," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PI).
    10. Rabii El Maani & Bouchaib Radi & Abdelkhalak El Hami, 2024. "Numerical Study and Optimization-Based Sensitivity Analysis of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Ye, Shitong & Wang, Qiang & Mu, Yanfei & Luo, Kun & Fan, Jianren, 2024. "Loads and fatigue characteristics assessment of wind farm based on dynamic wake meandering model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    12. Yin, Jiamin & Shen, Wen Zhong & Cao, Jiufa & Zhu, Wei Jun & Sun, Zhenye, 2025. "Quantification of air compressibility on large wind turbine blades using Computational Fluid Dynamics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    13. Lenci, Stefano, 2023. "Along-wind and cross-wind coupled nonlinear oscillations of wind turbine towers close to 1:1 internal resonance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    14. Liu, Yonghao & Kim, Youngsup & Seok, Jongwon, 2025. "Enhancing wind energy harvesting performance by leveraging the synergy of rotational and transverse wake galloping mechanisms," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    15. Doosttalab, Mehdi & Ferreira, Carlos Simão & Ragni, Daniele & Yu, Wei & Rautmann, Christof, 2026. "Evaluating dynamic stall models for thick wind turbine airfoils," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    16. Guoqiang Gao & Hongsheng Shu & Zixin Yi & Shuyi Yang & Juchuan Dai & Fan Zhang, 2024. "A Scaled Numerical Simulation Model for Structural Analysis of Large Wind Turbine Blade," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-19, September.
    17. Xing, Yongpeng & Lian, Jijian & Dong, Xiaofeng & Deng, Mingjiang, 2026. "Investigation on structural health monitoring and safety evaluation of an 8 MW offshore wind turbine structure supported by the multi-bucket jacket foundation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PB).
    18. Wu, Siyuan & Zhang, He & Zhang, Lei & Wang, Long & Sun, Xiangyu & Maeda, Takao & Cai, Chang & Li, Qing’an, 2025. "Multi-objective structural optimization of long flexible wind turbine blades for enhanced lightweight and reliability," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    19. Li, Xiaofeng & Xie, Fuqi & Pan, Xinglong & Yu, Liangwu & Fu, Han & Wu, Zhifei, 2025. "Intelligent fault diagnosis for a wind turbine gearbox via multisensor information fusion with adaptive weights," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    20. Zhu, Chengyong & Feng, Yi & Shen, Xiang & Dang, Zhigao & Chen, Jie & Qiu, Yingning & Feng, Yanhui & Wang, Tongguang, 2023. "Effects of the height and chordwise installation of the vane-type vortex generators on the unsteady aerodynamics of a wind turbine airfoil undergoing dynamic stall," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:18:p:5025-:d:1754699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.