Asfaw Beyene
San Diego State University, USA
Title: Advances in morphing wind turbine blade for wind energy conversion
Biography
Biography: Asfaw Beyene
Abstract
One serious challenge of energy systems design, wind turbines in particular, is the need to match the system operation to the variable load. Invariably, system efficiency drops at off-design load, i.e., both at over- and under-load regimes. One strategy to address this challenge for wind turbine blades, and obtain a more consistent efficiency over a full or wide load range, is by controlling the pitch. This is a cumbersome intervention because it is costly - adding complexity and energy investment to the system operation. A better alternative would be varying the blade geometry passively with a predictable morphing of wind turbine blade in reaction to wind load conditions. This concept, introduced recently, is derived from fish locomotion, as from spoilers and ailerons. In this work, we employ a fully coupled technique on CFD and FEM models to introduce continuous morphing to desired and predetermined NACA 4412 profile. Then we assess the aerodynamic behaviour of a morphing wind turbine airfoil using a two-dimensional computation. The computational results suggest that the morphing blade has superior part-load efficiency over the rigid NACA blade.
