The strategy for the future, advocated by many research groups for the next generation of wind turbines, is «Smart Rotor Control».This strategy consists of reducing in real time and at any point on the blade the excessive stresses caused by variations in the wind. This strategy is based on Active Flow Control (AFC) at each blade section.
The objective of the project is to use fluidic oscillators to reduce the aerodynamic stresses acting on the blades of a wind turbine.
The key to the success of the project is to be able to reproduce authentic winds in laboratory.
For a century, wind turbines have been developed with aeronautical tools intended to reproduce laminar conditions, without turbulences and without variability over time. These tools in the form of aeronautical wind tunnels or numerical simulations unfortunately do not reproduce real wind conditions.
Thanks to the advent of pixelated wind facilities (windshapers), a tool now exists to reproduce real winds and test wind turbines in authentic conditions.
Project partner(s)
Project leader - team
Flavio Noca
(HEPIA)