System and method for root loss reduction in wind turbine blades

A wind turbine blade comprising:

• a root section attached to a rotor disk portion of a wind turbine, the root section comprising a leading edge side and a trailing edge side;
• a leading edge extension (LEX) attached to the leading edge side of the root section, the extension configured to provide an enhanced lift coefficient and reduced flow separation in the root section;
• and
• a trailing edge strake (TES) attached to the trailing edge side of the root section, the TES configured to provide enhanced lift to drag ratio in the root section, reduced flow separation in the root section, or both enhanced lift to drag ratio and reduced flow separation in the root region, wherein the LEX and TES together are configured to reduce radial centrifuging of flow slipping through the rotor disk portion of the wind turbine without extraction of energy.

A wind turbine blade comprising:

• a root region comprising a leading edge side and a trailing edge side;
• a leading edge extension (LEX) attached to the leading edge side of the root region;
• and
• a trailing edge strake (TES) attached to the trailing edge side of the root region, wherein the LEX and TES each comprise an outer profile that becomes more pronounced relative to their respective locations in the root region as the root region of the wind turbine blade morphs from a substantially cylindrical shape to a substantially airfoil shape.