scholarly journals Novel Application and Validation of a Method to Assess Visual Impacts of Rotating Wind Turbine Blades Within Woodland Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
U. Nopp-Mayr ◽  
F. Kunz ◽  
F. Suppan ◽  
E. Schöll ◽  
J. Coppes
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
Independent Field

AbstractIncreasing numbers of wind power plants (WPP) are constructed across the globe to reduce the anthropogenic contribution to global warming. There are, however, concerns on the effects of WPP on human health as well as related effects on wildlife. To address potential effects of WPP in environmental impact assessments, existing models accounting for shadow flickering and noise are widely applied. However, a standardized, yet simple and widely applicable proxy for the visibility of rotating wind turbines in woodland areas was largely lacking up to date. We combined land cover information of forest canopy extracted from orthophotos and airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data to represent the visibility of rotating wind turbines in five woodland study sites with a high spatial resolution. Performing an in-situ validation in five study areas across Europe which resulted in a unique sample of 1738 independent field observations, we show that our approach adequately predicts from where rotating wind turbine blades are visible within woodlands or not. We thus provide strong evidence, that our approach yields a valuable proxy of the visibility of moving rotor blades with high resolution which in turn can be applied in environmental impact assessments of WPP within woodlands worldwide.

scholarly journals Recycling of Mechanically Ground Wind Turbine Blades as Filler in Geopolymer Composite

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 6539
Author(s):  
Kinga Pławecka ◽  
Jakub Przybyła ◽  
Kinga Korniejenko ◽  
Wei-Ting Lin ◽  
An Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Reference Sample ◽  
Dry Mass ◽  
Waste Material ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Inorganic Matter ◽  
Geopolymer Composites

This paper concerns the recycling of waste material from wind turbine blades. The aim of the research was to determine the possibility of using ground waste material derived from the exploited structures of wind turbines as a filler in geopolymer composites. In order to determine the potential of such a solution, tests were carried out on three different fractions originating from the ground blades of wind turbines, including an analysis of the morphology and chemical composition of particles using SEM and an EDS detector, the analysis of organic and inorganic matter content and tests for multivariate geopolymer composites with the addition of waste material. The compression and flexural strength, density and absorbability tests, among others, were carried out. The composite material made of the geopolymer matrix contained the filler at the level of 5%, 15% and 30% of dry mass. The addition of the filler showed a tendency to decrease the properties of the obtained geopolymer composite. However, it was possible to obtain materials that did not significantly differ in properties from the re-reference sample for the filler content of 5% and 15% of dry mass. As a result of the research, it was found that waste materials from the utilization of used wind power plants can become fillers in geopolymer composites. It was also found that it is possible to increase the strength of the obtained material by lowering the porosity.

scholarly journals Sustainable End-of-Life Management of Wind Turbine Blades: Overview of Current and Coming Solutions

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1124
Author(s):  
Leon Mishnaevsky Mishnaevsky
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Natural Fiber ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Maintenance And Repair ◽  
Life Management ◽  
Large Wind

Various scenarios of end-of-life management of wind turbine blades are reviewed. “Reactive” strategies, designed to deal with already available, ageing turbines, installed in the 2000s, are discussed, among them, maintenance and repair, reuse, refurbishment and recycling. The main results and challenges of “pro-active strategies”, designed to ensure recyclability of new generations of wind turbines, are discussed. Among the main directions, the wind turbine blades with thermoplastic and recyclable thermoset composite matrices, as well as wood, bamboo and natural fiber-based composites were reviewed. It is argued that repair and reuse of wind turbine blades, and extension of the blade life has currently a number of advantages over other approaches. While new recyclable materials have been tested in laboratories, or in some cases on small or medium blades, there are remaining technological challenges for their utilization in large wind turbine blades.

scholarly journals Design and Analysis of a Wind Turbine Blade with Dimples to Enhance the Efficiency through CFD with ANSYS R16.0

2018 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 02004
Author(s):  
M. Rajaram Narayanan ◽  
S. Nallusamy ◽  
M. Ragesh Sathiyan
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Optimum Combination ◽  
Surface Topology ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Lift And Drag

In the global scenario, wind turbines and their aerodynamics are always subjected to constant research for increasing their efficiency which converts the abundant wind energy into usable electrical energy. In this research, an attempt is made to increase the efficiency through the changes in surface topology of wind turbines through computational fluid dynamics. Dimples on the other hand are very efficient in reducing air drag as is it evident from the reduction of drag and increase in lift in golf balls. The predominant factors influencing the efficiency of the wind turbines are lift and drag which are to be maximized and minimized respectively. In this research, surface of turbine blades are integrated with dimples of various sizes and arrangements and are analyzed using computational fluid dynamics to obtain an optimum combination. The analysis result shows that there is an increase in power with about 15% increase in efficiency. Hence, integration of dimples on the surface of wind turbine blades has helped in increasing the overall efficiency of the wind turbine.

Research on Wind Turbine Blade Loads and Dynamics Factors

2014 ◽  
Vol 1014 ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
Zhi Qiang Xu ◽  
Jian Huang
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Mechanical Energy ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Wind Turbine Blade ◽  
Strength Analysis ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Turbine Wheel

Wind turbines consists of three key parts, namely, wind wheels (including blades, hub, etc.), cabin (including gearboxes, motors, controls, etc.) and the tower and Foundation. Wind turbine wheel is the most important part ,which is made up of blades and hubs. Blade has a good aerodynamic shape, which will produce aerodynamic in the airflow rotation, converting wind energy into mechanical energy, and then, driving the generator into electrical energy by gearbox pace. Wind turbine operates in the natural environment, their load wind turbine blades are more complex. Therefore load calculations and strength analysis for wind turbine design is very important. Wind turbine blades are core components of wind turbines, so understanding of their loads and dynamics by which the load on the wind turbine blade design is of great significance.

scholarly journals FSI in Wind Turbines: A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Yogesh Ramesh Patel
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Fluid Structure Interaction ◽  
Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Fluid Structure ◽  
Structure Interaction ◽  
Deformable Structure

This paper provides a brief overview of the research in the field of Fluid-structure interaction in Wind Turbines. Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) is the interplay of some movable or deformable structure with an internal or surrounding fluid flow. Flow brought about vibrations of two airfoils used in wind turbine blades are investigated by using a strong coupled fluid shape interplay approach. The approach is based totally on a regularly occurring Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code that solves the Navier-Stokes equations defined in Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) coordinates by way of a finite extent method. The need for the FSI in the wind Turbine system is studied and comprehensively presented.

In Situ Blade Deflection Monitoring of a Wind Turbine Using a Wireless Laser Displacement Sensor Device within the Tower

2013 ◽  
Vol 558 ◽  
pp. 84-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paritosh Giri ◽  
Jung Ryul Lee
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Displacement Sensor ◽  
Laser Displacement Sensor ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Analog To Digital ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Transceiver Module

With commercially viable global wind power potential, wind energy penetration is further expected to rise, as will the related problems. One issue is the collision of wind turbine blades with the tower during operation. Structured health monitoring is required to improve operational safety, minimize the risk of sudden failure or total breakdown, ensure reliable power generation, and reduce wind turbine life cycle costs. Large numbers of sensors such as fiber Bragg grating and piezoelectric devices have been attached to the structure, a design that is uneconomical and impractical for use in large wind turbines. This study proposes a single laser displacement sensor (LDS) system in which all of the rotating blades could be cost-effectively evaluated. Contrary to the approach of blade sensor installation, the LDS system is installed in the tower to enable noncontact blade displacement monitoring. The concept of a noncontact sensor and actuator and their energy delivery device installation in the tower will enable various approaches for wind turbine structural health monitoring. Blade bolt loosening causes deflection in the affected blade. Similarly, nacelle tilt or mass loss damage in the blade will result in changes in blade deflection, but the proposed system can identify such problems with ease. With the need of more energy, the sizes of wind blades are getting bigger and bigger. Due to the large size of wind turbine, nowadays wind turbines are installed very high above the ground or water level. It is impractical to monitor the results from LDS through wired connection in these cases. Hence, the wired connection of LDS to base (monitoring) station must be replaced by a wireless solution. This wireless solution is achieved using Zigbee technology. Zigbee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands, typically 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz and 868 MHz. The output from the LDS is fed to the microcontroller which acts as an analog to digital converter. The output from the microcontroller is connected to the Zigbee transceiver module, which transmits the data and at the other end, the zigbee reads the data and displays on the PC from where user can monitor the condition of wind blades.

Design and Evaluation of a Rooftop Wind Turbine Rotor With Untwisted Blades

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayem Zafar ◽  
Mohamed Gadalla
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Angle Of Attack ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Small Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Turbine Rotor

A small horizontal axis wind turbine rotor was designed and tested with aerodynamically efficient, economical and easy to manufacture blades. Basic blade aerodynamic analysis was conducted using commercially available software. The blade span was constrained such that the complete wind turbine can be rooftop mountable with the envisioned wind turbine height of around 8 m. The blade was designed without any taper or twist to comply with the low cost and ease of manufacturing requirements. The aerodynamic analysis suggested laminar flow airfoils to be the most efficient airfoils for such use. Using NACA 63-418 airfoil, a rectangular blade geometry was selected with chord length of 0.27[m] and span of 1.52[m]. Glass reinforced plastic was used as the blade material for low cost and favorable strength to weight ratio with a skin thickness of 1[mm]. Because of the resultant velocity changes with respect to the blade span, while the blade is rotating, an optimal installed angle of attack was to be determined. The installed angle of attack was required to produce the highest possible rotation under usual wind speeds while start at relatively low speed. Tests were conducted at multiple wind speeds with blades mounted on free rotating shaft. The turbine was tested for three different installed angles and rotational speeds were recorded. The result showed increase in rotational speed with the increase in blade angle away from the free-stream velocity direction while the start-up speeds were found to be within close range of each other. At the optimal angle was found to be 22° from the plane of rotation. The results seem very promising for a low cost small wind turbine with no twist and taper in the blade. The tests established that non-twisted wind turbine blades, when used for rooftop small wind turbines, can generate useable electrical power for domestic consumption. It also established that, for small wind turbines, non-twisted, non-tapered blades provide an economical yet productive alternative to the existing complex wind turbine blades.

Development of wireless bird collision monitoring system using 0-3 piezoelectric composite sensor on wind turbine blades

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (17) ◽  
pp. 3426-3435
Author(s):  
Sang-Hyeon Kang ◽  
Lae-Hyong Kang
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Monitoring System ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Piezoelectric Composite ◽  
Collision Rate ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
The Impact

Over the past several decades, wind turbines have been established as one of the promising renewable energy systems for safe and clean energy collection. In order to collect more energy efficiently, the size of wind turbines has been increased and many wind farms have been constructed. Wind farms generate lots of energy, but they cause several side effects, such as noise and a threat to wildlife. It is reported that the bird collision rate of a wind turbine ranges from 0.01 to 23 annually. It is more serious in the case of rare and endangered birds. In order to monitor the effect on birds in wind farms, researchers have developed remote sensing technology for a detection apparatus using heat and radar. In addition, paint color and other variables have been studied regarding their effects on the collision rate. However, the existing methods are passive ways to prevent bird collision or just monitor bird conditions. Therefore, in this study, we propose a bird collision monitoring system that can detect where the bird collision occurred, which will aid in rescuing the birds. If the wind turbine blade has its own ability to capture an impact signal, the impact location can be easily detected, and the birds can be rescued. For this purpose, piezoelectric paint was applied to the wind turbine blades used in this study. The piezoelectric paint is also known as 0-3 piezoelectric composite, which is composed of piezoelectric particles and polymer resin. It is sensitive to high-frequency signals such as impacts, so it is suitable for monitoring bird collision signals. In order to amplify and transmit the impact signal from the rotating blade to a stationary base, a wireless transmission device using a ZigBee module and signal conditioning circuit was also installed. Through lab-scale tests, it was confirmed that this bird collision monitoring system shows a 100% bird collision detection rate.

scholarly journals A Simplified Morphing Blade for Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijun Wang ◽  
Stéphane Caro ◽  
Fouad Bennis ◽  
Oscar Roberto Salinas Mejia
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Annual Average ◽  
Average Wind Speed ◽  
Pitch Control ◽  
Average Wind

The aim of designing wind turbine blades is to improve the power capture ability. Since rotor control technology is currently limited to controlling rotational speed and blade pitch, an increasing concern has been given to morphing blades. In this paper, a simplified morphing blade is introduced, which has a linear twist distribution along the span and a shape that can be controlled by adjusting the twist of the blade's root and tip. To evaluate the performance of wind turbine blades, a numerical code based on the blade element momentum theory is developed and validated. The blade of the NREL Phase VI wind turbine is taken as a reference blade and has a fixed pitch. The optimization problems associated with the control of the morphing blade and a blade with pitch control are formulated. The optimal results show that the morphing blade gives better results than the blade with pitch control in terms of produced power. Under the assumption that at a given site, the annual average wind speed is known and the wind speed follows a Rayleigh distribution, the annual energy production of wind turbines was evaluated for three types of blade, namely, morphing blade, blade with pitch control and fixed pitch blade. For an annual average wind speed varying between 5 m/s and 15 m/s, it turns out that the annual energy production of the wind turbine containing morphing blades is 24.5% to 69.7% higher than the annual energy production of the wind turbine containing pitch fixed blades. Likewise, the annual energy production of the wind turbine containing blades with pitch control is 22.7% to 66.9% higher than the annual energy production of the wind turbine containing pitch fixed blades.

Crack detection technique for operating wind turbine blades using Vibro-Acoustic Modulation

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 660-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungmin Kim ◽  
Douglas E Adams ◽  
Hoon Sohn ◽  
Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera ◽  
Noah Myrent ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Crack Detection ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Detection Technique ◽  
New Technique ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Excitation Signal ◽  
Acoustic Modulation

This article presents a new technique for identifying cracks in wind turbine blades undergoing operational loads using the Vibro-Acoustic Modulation technique. Vibro-Acoustic Modulation utilizes a low-frequency pumping excitation signal in conjunction with a high-frequency probing excitation signal to create the modulation that is used to identify cracks. Wind turbines provide the ideal conditions in which Vibro-Acoustic Modulation can be utilized because wind turbines experience large low-frequency structural vibrations during operation which can serve as the low-frequency pumping excitation signal. In this article, the theory for the vibro-acoustic technique is described, and the proposed crack detection technique is demonstrated with Vibro-Acoustic Modulation experiments performed on a small Whisper 100 wind turbine in operation. The experimental results are also compared with two other conventional vibro-acoustic techniques in order to validate the new technique. Finally, a computational study is demonstrated for choosing a proper probing signal with a finite element model of the cracked blade to maximize the sensitivity of the technique for detecting cracks.

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