Design and Optimisation of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blades Using Biomimicry of Whale Tubercles
John Yirijor *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Academic City University College, Haatso-Accra, Ghana.
Nana Asabere Siaw-Mensah
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Academic City University College, Haatso-Accra, Ghana.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Wind speed is the major factor in generating power in a wind turbine. However, due to the non-optimum and redundant design of wind turbine blades, not nearly enough wind is captured for utilization. In the present study, modifications were done on the leading edge of the HAWT blade using tubercles showing their effects on aerodynamic performances. From this research, the following results found concerning the performances of HAWT with leading-edge tubercles were that; blades with tubercles on the leading edge will have superior performance in the post-stall regime by 27%, tubercles with a smaller amplitude and lower wavelength will produce higher lift and lower drag in the low wind speed condition, and tubercle blade will have a stable and smooth performance in varying wind speed conditions, producing higher torque and power at low wind speed. Using a small wind turbine model, SolidWorks Motion Analysis Simulation was used for dynamic modeling to evaluate and determine the force and torque of the mechanical structure. These results were compared and examined using standard wind turbine blades which showed an improvement of 30% in efficiency.
Keywords: Wind turbine, tubercle blade, biomimicry, horizontal-axis wind turbines, solidworks
How to Cite
Downloads
References
Jha AR. Wind Turbine Technology (1st ed.). CRC Press; 2010.
Available:https://doi.org/10.1201/9781439815076
Porté-Agel F, Bastankhah M, Shamsoddin S. Wind-turbine and wind-farm flows a review. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 2020;174:1–59. Available:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-019-00473-0
Fish FE, Battle JM. Hydrodynamic design of the humpback whale flipper. J Morph; 1995.
Available:https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160222
Gopinathan V, Bruce Ralphin Rose J. Aerodynamics with state-of-the-art bioinspired technology: Tubercles of a humpback whale. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering. 2021;235(16):2359-2377. DOI:10.1177/09544100211001501
Akhter MZ, Omar FK. Review of flow-control devices for wind-turbine performance enhancement. Energies. 2021;14(5):1268. Available:https://doi.org/10.3390/en14051268
Bushnell DM, Moore KJ. Drag reduction in nature. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. 1991;23:65-79.
Available:https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.fl.23.010191.000433
Bearman PW, et al. Reduction of bluff-body drag and suppression of vortex shedding by the introduction of wavy separation lines. J. Fluids Struct; 1998.
Miklosovic DS, Murray MM, Howle LE. Experimental evaluation of sinusoidal leading edges. J Aircraft. 2007;44:1404-7
Frank E Fish, Paul W, Weber Mark M. Murray Laurens E. Howle. The tubercles on humpback whales' flippers: Application of bio-inspired technology. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2011;51(1):203–213. Available:https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icr016
Chen H, Pan C, Wang J. Effects of sinusoidal leading edge on delta wing performance and mechanism. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 2013;56:772–779. Available:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-013-5143-3
Ozen CA, Rockwell D. Control of vortical structures on a flapping wing via a sinusoidal leading-edge. Physics of Fluids. 2010:22(2);021701.
Available:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3304539
Watts P, Fish FE. The influence of passive, leading edge tubercles on wing
performance Proc. Twelfth Intl. Sym. Unmanned Untethered Submers. Technol., Durham New. 2001:2–9.
Chen S, Liu Y, Han C, Yan S, Hong Z. Numerical Investigation of Turbine Blades with Leading-Edge Tubercles in Uniform Current. Water. 2021;13(16):2205.
Available:https://doi.org/10.3390/w13162205
Fish FE, Lauder GV. Control surfaces of aquatic vertebrates: Active and passive design and function. J Exp Biol. 2017;220(23):4351-4363. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.149617