Aerodynamic Analysis of the Impact Produced by Surface Roughness Variation on Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blades
R. (Rubén) Gutiérrez Amo
Doctoral Candidate
Dr. D. (Daniele) Ragni
Assistant Professor
The exposure of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) to atmospheric and environmental conditions substantially alters the designed performance of the machine. Different sources of surface deterioration and erosion have been reported by insects, hail, sand grains, rain, etc. Their combination determines a modification of the blade surface from its design geometry. As a result, a reduction of annual energy production (AEP) is obtained along with a direct increase in the cost of energy (COE). Nowadays, two main branches can be identified in the impact quantification on the blade aerodynamic performance, the empirical one, defined by different techniques used on wind tunnel models, and the computational one, mainly related with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computations. There is not a direct correlation between both branches. Any of them are fully representative of the physical phenomenon. This fact along with the variety of methods implies a dispersion in the impact quantification. The current thesis is focused on reducing this dispersion giving a correlation between both branches and consequently improving the roughness turbulence modelling done in CFD for wind energy applications. Additionally, flow control devices such as vortex generators will be researched as a potential solution for mitigating aerodynamic roughness effects.
Gutiérrez, R., Llórente, E., Echeverría, F. and Ragni, D., 2020, September. Wind tunnel tests for vortex generators mitigating leading-edge roughness on a 30% thick airfoil. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1618, No. 5, p. 052058). IOP Publishing. DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/
Rubén Gutiérrez Amo was born in Miranda de Ebro (Spain) at where his interest on Physics began. He obatined a Mechanical Engineering degree in the Faculty of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz (UPV/EHU). Subsequently, he studied a Master of Science in Computational and Applied Mechanical Engineering in the Public University of Navarre meanwhile he was working as an intern in CENER during one year. Rubén participated in the European researching project called Offshore Demonstration Blade.
Daniele Ragni graduated in Thermo-Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Marche (2007). Obtained the Ph.D. in 2012 (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering TU Delft) and joined TU Delft at the section of Wind Energy in the AWEP Department in the same year.
