Investigation of NREL Phase VI wind turbine blade with different winglet configuration for performance augmentation

ABSTRACT

A wind turbine blade’s winglet is predominantly used to reduce the induced drag generated by the blades and consequently improve the blade’s aerodynamic performance. The benchmark blade NREL Phase VI and all blades with the winglet were designed and simulated using CFD. Subsequently, the numerical model is validated against data from the NREL Phase VI experiment. In the first case, at a fixed winglet length of 0.09 m, the best results are obtained for sharp bent configurations when the winglet cant angle is 45° whereas for smooth bent configurations is at a 30° cant angle. Under the second scenario, ten winglets with different winglet heights, lengths, and cant angles and a simple linear tip extension are generated and tested numerically at wind speeds of 5, 7 and 9 m/s. Therefore, curving the tip to make a winglet shape of applicable configuration is definitely preferable to extending the tip straight.

KEYWORDS:

• NREL Phase VI blade
• winglet
• winglet configuration
• blade-tip vortices
• CFD

Acknowledgement

Partial support from Jimma Institute of Technology Center of Excellence is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).