The intelligent rotor blades can produce electricity more efficiently, which has been developed during the three-year Smart Blades research project.
The Smart Blades project was undertaken by FVWE together with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) and ForWind, the Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen.
Backed by €12m funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the project is intended to assess the effect active and passive technologies which enable rotor blades to adapt to the local wind conditions.
The project findings provide new information and tools which enable turbine developers and operators to launch more effective, more cost-efficient and more reliable system designs on the market.
According to Fraunhofer IWES, a rotor blade, when subjected to high wind, it turns in such a way that it offers the wind a smaller contact surface, known as bending-torsion coupling.
Initiated by the force of the wind alone, the bending is described as a ‘passive’ mechanism.
Two approaches were considered that produce this effect including a crescent-shaped geometry and a particular structure for the material composition of the rotor blade.
Fraunhofer IWES smart blades technology coordinator Alper Sevinc said: "The advantages of the mechanisms are that the blades can be built with a less robust design and are therefore lighter.
"Both processes have the potential to improve the energy utilization of wind power systems."
The researchers are now planning to assess the mechanisms tested in the simulation on demonstration rotor blades which are already designed in a future project.
Researchers also considered active mechanisms that adapt the trailing edges of a rotor blade.
This also enables system operators to control the aerodynamic loads on a rotor blade. The concept is inspired by the aviation industry and comparable to the flaps on the wings of aircraft.
Additionally, the researchers looked at whether a flexible leading edge flap on a rotor blade can improve the wind turbines efficiency subject to heavily fluctuating, turbulent wind conditions.
The team will test their results on full-scale rotor blades.
Image: illustration of wind turbine. Photo: © DLR.
