Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Effects of Wavy Leading Edge on the NREL Phase VI Wind Turbine Annual Performance
Submission Author:
Juan Flores Mezarina , SP
Co-Authors:
Juan Flores Mezarina, Hernán Cerón-Muñoz
Presenter: Juan Flores Mezarina
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1312
Abstract
The current global economy is sustained by fossil fuels, which have increased the greenhouse emissions that contribute to the global temperature increase. Renewable energy sources have the potential to mitigate these gas emissions; however, its capacity extension faces the energy trilemma that involves energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability. To overcome this trilemma, governmental policies are as important as the technological development. The Wavy Leading Edge (WLE, also known as leading edge protuberances) is a passive control flow device that enhances the aerodynamic performance at high angles of attack. When implemented on the NREL Phase VI wind turbine blade, it increases the blade torque only at high wind speeds (≥ 15 m/s) and degrades it at the blade design wind speed (10 m/s). However, the parameters used to design the WLE have been limited to the wave amplitude and wavelength. When the WLE size is designed proportional to the blade chord and the wave asymmetry parameter is included, its torque can be less severe degraded at the the blade design wind speed and still increased at higher wind speeds. In this study, the effects of these design parameters on the blade torque were used to assess its annual power output variation. The Weibull distribution was used to calculate the wind distribution and density at three different main wind speed (U) values: 7.5, 10 and 12.5 m/s. Two shape factors were considered, to have a distributed wind density probability and a sharpened one. It was found that all blades degrade the blade annual power output performance at U = 7.5 m/s, specially if the wind density probability concentrates at lower wind speeds. At U = 10 m/s, some WLE configurations enhance the blade performance when the wind density probability is not sharpened. The asymmetrical WLE blade out stands with 6.2% performance increase. At U = 12.5 m/s, almost all WLE configurations enhance the blade performance for both shape factors. As shown, the same blade with different WLE configurations can have its annual performance increased for specific environmental conditions; therefore, the WLE device has the potential to increase the wind energy harvesting and contribute to the energy transition towards renewable energies.
Keywords
Wavy Leading Edge, NREL Phase VI blade, wind energy, leading-edge protuberances, Biomimetics
