The effects of the dual control method on the aerodynamic characteristics of the wind turbine blade

ABSTRACT

In order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of small wind turbine blades, a new form of flow control was investigated in this paper. Which was the addition of an S809 airfoil profile slat on the leading edge of blade and a Gurney flap on the trailing edge of the blade. The effects of dual control method on the aerodynamic characteristics were discussed through numerical simulations method. The findings showed that this dual control method increased the fluid velocity on the suction surface of the blade. The fluid could receive higher energy to suppress the inverse pressure gradient in the boundary layer. The blade torque had a significant influence by the dual control method, the total torque of the blade was greatly increased compared to the original blade. The main blade torque of blade-1 was increased by 180.21 N⋅m compared to the original blade at 15.1 m/s. The pressure difference was also increased and the flow separation was restrained, especially near r/R = 0.6. At 10 m/s, the torque coefficients of the r/R = 0.5–0.7 spanwise cross-section were improved by the dual control method. When wind speed was 20.1 m/s, blade-3 increased the torque coefficient from 0.84 to 1.89 at r/R = 0.3 compared to the blade-0, an increase of 125%.

KEYWORDS:

• S809 airfoil
• flow separation
• leading edge slat
• Gurney flap
• wind turbine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Foundation of Jiangxi Educational Committee, China [grant number GJJ200822], Doctor Foundation of Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, China [grant number 205200100513].

Notes on contributors

Yang Li

Yang Li graduated from School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology in 2023, Nanchang, China. His research interests are flow separation and control of wind turbines.

Haipeng Wang

Haipeng Wang is a lecturer and a researcher in the School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang, China. He received his PhD in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermal Physics in 2017 from Dalian University of Technology, China. His research interests are aerodynamic characteristics and flow separation control of wind turbines.

Hongwei Shi

Hongwei Shi a lecturer and a researcher in the School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang, China. He received his PhD in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermal Physics in 2018 from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research interests are clean energy utilization and solid particle transportation.

Zhen Huang

Zhen Huang is currently studying as a postgraduate in the School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang, China. He will receive his Master degree in mechanical engineering in 2024 from Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, China. His research interests are aerodynamic characteristics of vertical axis wind turbines.

Hua Zhong

Hua Zhong is currently studying as a postgraduate in the School of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang, China. He will receive his Master degree in mechanical engineering in 2024 from Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, China. His research interests are flow separation and control of wind turbines.