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Energy Harvesting and Energy Efficiency pp 629–655Cite as

Flow Control Devices for Wind Turbines

Part of the Lecture Notes in Energy book series (LNEN,volume 37)

Abstract

The following chapter provides an overview about available knowledge, references and investigations on the active and passive flow control devices, initially developed for aeronautic industry that are currently being investigated and introduced on wind turbines. The main goal pursued with the introduction of these devices is to delay the boundary layer separation and enhance/suppress turbulences. The aim is to achieve a lift enhancement, drag reduction or flow-induced noise reduction among other parameters. However, achieving these goals present some issues, because the improvement of one of these parameters may suppose an undesired effect in another. For this reason it is necessary to study in detail each one of these devices, their operating concept, applications and their main advantages and drawbacks. Depending on the flow control nature, devices can be classified as actives or passives. Passive techniques allow to improve the performance of the wind turbines without external energy expenditure whereas active techniques require external energy for their activation. There are a lot of devices and in this chapter there have been compiled some of the most important ones, both passives devices (Vortex Generators , Microtabs, Spoilers, Fences, Serrated trailing edge) and actives devices (Trailing edge flaps, Air Jet Vortex Generators, Synthetic Jets).

Keywords

  • Wind turbine
  • Flow control
  • Passive devices
  • Active devices
  • Cost of energy
  • Energy efficiency

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Abbreviations

AcVG:

Actuator Vortex Generator

AFC:

Active Flow Control

AJVG:

Air Jet Vortex Generator

CFD:

Computational Fluid Dynamics

COE:

Cost of Energy

DS:

Delay Stall

DOF:

Degree of Freedom

DTU:

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

EWEA:

Energy Wind Energy Association

FEM:

Finite Element Method

VG:

Vortex Generator

LE:

Leading Edge

MC:

Mid Chord

MDO:

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

NREL:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

O&M:

Operation and Maintenance

RANS:

Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes

RWT:

Reference Wind Turbine

SST:

Shear Stress Transport

TE:

Trailing Edge

PVGJ:

Pulsed Vortex Generator Jet

EC :

Kinetic Energy

ρ:

Density

t:

Time

CL :

Lift Coefficient

CD :

Drag Coefficient

A:

Area

v:

Velocity

α:

Angle of Attack

c:

Chord

b:

Span

h:

Height

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Acknowledgements

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Dr. Unai Fernandez Gamiz, from Nuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics Department of University of the Basque Country of Vitoria-Gasteiz, for his support for the performance of this chapter, and his willingness to share bibliography, time and knowledge. This work was supported by both the Government of the Basque Country and the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU through the SAIOTEK (S-PE11UN112) and EHU12/26 research programs, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics, University of the Basque Country, Nieves Cano 12, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Araba, Spain

    Iñigo Aramendia, Unai Fernandez-Gamiz & Javier Sancho

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Nieves Cano 12, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Araba, Spain

    Jose Antonio Ramos-Hernanz

  3. Department of Systems Engineering and Automatics, University of the Basque Country, Nieves Cano 12, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Araba, Spain

    Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede & Ekaitz Zulueta

Authors
  1. Iñigo Aramendia
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  2. Unai Fernandez-Gamiz
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  5. Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede
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  6. Ekaitz Zulueta
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Correspondence to Iñigo Aramendia .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electronics, Communication, and Computers, University of Piteşti, Piteşti, Romania

    Nicu Bizon

  2. Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Seraj Higher Education Institute, Tabriz, Iran

    Naser Mahdavi Tabatabaei

  3. Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, Denmark

    Frede Blaabjerg

  4. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Erol Kurt

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Aramendia, I., Fernandez-Gamiz, U., Ramos-Hernanz, J.A., Sancho, J., Lopez-Guede, J.M., Zulueta, E. (2017). Flow Control Devices for Wind Turbines. In: Bizon, N., Mahdavi Tabatabaei, N., Blaabjerg, F., Kurt, E. (eds) Energy Harvesting and Energy Efficiency. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49875-1_21

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