Wind turbine and associated vortex generator
AssigneeWobben Properties GmbH
InventorsMatthias Arnold, Wayne White
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wind turbine comprising a tower, a nacelle arranged on the tower, a generator, and a rotor comprising at least one rotor blade, wherein the wind turbine comprises vortex generators arranged on an outer surface of the tower, wherein the vortex generators have a fin extending from the outer surface of the tower, and wherein the fin has a height extending perpendicularly from the surface of the tower and a fin chord extending parallel to the surface of the tower. The fin chord has a curvature such that a first end of the fin chord has a smaller angle to the horizontal than the opposite second end of the fin chord.
Claims18
A wind turbine comprising:
- a tower, a nacelle arranged on the tower, a generator, and a rotor comprising at least one rotor blade, and
- a plurality of vortex generators arranged on an outer surface of the tower,
- wherein each of the plurality of vortex generators has at least one fin extending from an outer surface of the tower,
- wherein each fin has a height extending perpendicularly from the outer surface of the tower and a fin chord extending parallel to the outer surface of the tower,
- wherein the fin chord has a curvature such that a first end of the fin chord has a smaller angle to a horizontal than the opposite second end of the fin chord,
- wherein the curvatures of the fin chords of the plurality of vortex generators are oriented the same relative to a circumferential direction around the outer surface of the tower, and
- wherein the plurality of vortex generators are configured such that asymmetrically strong wake vortices caused by the plurality of vortex generators cause a central wake vortex in the near-field of the tower to rotate in a preferred direction of rotation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.