When talking about wind energy, efficiency inevitability comes into question. Wind turbines work best when there is a steady wind flow. The blades and overall efficiency can be affected by conditions like wind gusts, turbulent flow, wind shear, and more. Now, researchers from Syracuse University's L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS) are testing a new active flow control method to increase turbine efficiency.

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy through the University of Minnesota Wind Energy Consortium, they've created an intelligent-systems-based approach that estimates flow conditions over a turbine's blade surfaces and uses the information to implement real-time, flow control actuation via an intelligent controller.

Initial simulation results show that when flow control is applied to the outboard side of a blade beyond half radius, it could enlarge the total operational range of the turbine with the same rated power output by 80%. Another possibility is that it could increase the rated output power for the same operational range by 20%.

The team is continuing to investigate their system, while also looking at a characteristic airfoil in a wind tunnel facility. In additional to improving overall efficiency of wind turbines, the researchers also believe that their work will help reduce excessive noise and vibration caused by flow separation.

Source: Syracuse University