Secondary airfoil mounted on stall fence on wind turbine blade
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorDrew Eisenberg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An airfoil (26, 62, 64) is mounted on a chordwise stall fence (28) of a wind turbine blade (22). The airfoil may be an aerodynamic slat (26) positioned over a forward portion of the suction side (38) of the blade or a flap (63) disposed near a trailing edge (34) of the blade. The stall fence may be at least as high as the thickness of the boundary layer (39) of air passing over the blade. The slat or flap may be twisted between an inboard end (26A) and an outboard end (26B) to compensate for the radially varying angle of the relative air inflow (46A, 46B).
Claims18
A wind turbine blade comprising:
- a main element;
- a stall fence extending over at least most of a chordwise length of the main element;
- and
- a slat mounted on the stall fence over a forward portion of a suction side of the main element;
- wherein the slat is positioned to reduce a separation of airflow from the suction side of the airfoil;
- and
- wherein the slat is twisted between an inboard end and an outboard end of the slat such that an angle between a chord of the slat and a rotation plane of the blade decreases with distance from a center of rotation of the blade.
A wind turbine blade comprising:
- a radially inboard portion with a stall fence extending over at least most of a chordwise length of a suction side of the blade;
- and
- an aerodynamic slat mounted on and across the stall fence with a clearance over a forward portion of the suction side of the blade effective to reduce a separation of an airflow over the suction side of the airfoil;
- wherein the slat is twisted between an inboard end and an outboard end of the slat such that an angle between a chord of the slat and a rotation plane of the blade decreases with distance from a center of rotation of the blade.
A wind turbine blade comprising:
- a radially inboard portion with a plurality of chordwise stall fences extending over at least most of a chordwise length of a suction side of a main element of the blade;
- and
- an aerodynamic slat mounted on and across the stall fences with a clearance over a forward portion of the suction side of the main element that is effective to reduce an airflow separation over the suction side of the airfoil;
- wherein the slat is twisted between an inboard end and an outboard end of the slat such that an angle between a chord of the slat and a rotation plane of the blade decreases with distance from a center of rotation of the blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.