Wind turbine blades with vortex generators
AssigneeVestas Wind Systems A/S
InventorKristian Balschmidt Godsk
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Abstract
An advantageous new design of a wind turbine blade and rotor is obtained by providing one, two or more parallel rows of sub-boundary layer vortex generators, whereby a blade is obtained, which is resistant to stall and provides for a high maximum lift coefficient CL,max of the blades and a slender blade design, a low socalled radius specific solidity of the rotor. The very high lift coefficient CL can reduce the necessary blade area and loads or/and increase the length of the blade and maintain the original loads with higher production. The row or rows of sub-boundary layer vortex generators are in a preferred embodiment of the invention provided in combination with Gurney Flaps generating a very high lift coefficient CL with a relative gentle stall at very high angle of attack.
Claims15
A wind turbine blade comprising
- a first row of vortex generators arranged in a longitudinal direction of the blade on a suction side thereof, wherein a height of said vortex generators comprising the first row in a direction away from a surface of the blade is within the range of 0.1% to 0.65% of a chord length of the blade, and
- a second row of vortex generators arranged in the longitudinal direction of the blade on the suction side thereof, wherein a height of said vortex generators comprising the second row in a direction away from the surface of the blade is within the range of 0.1% to 1% of the chord length,
- wherein the first and second rows of vortex generators are provided along at least 10% of a longitudinal extent of the blade, and the second row of vortex generators extends at a chord wise distance from a leading edge in the range from 20% to 50% of the chord length further away from the leading edge than the first row of vortex generators.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.