Bio-Inspired Turbine Blades for improved performance of Wind Turbines

Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) have been used for decades as a source of renewable energy, but they come with their fair share of issues, such as their size, cost, and sensitivity to external conditions. In recent years, Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) have been created as an alternative to alleviate some of these issues, but they have some problems of their own. While they can operate over a wider range of conditions than HAWTs, they suffer from lower aerodynamic efficiency. To combat this issue, a blade model that mimics the shape of an albatross wing was considered, since their wings can deliver aerodynamic efficiency and maximize the lift to drag ratios. By using CAD modeling and fluid simulation modeling, it was possible to create and test the bioinspired blade against a normal straight VAWT blade and compare the differences in power production and efficiency. The TSR (tip speed ratio) will be plotted against the calculated power coefficient for the different types of blades, and by comparing the results it can be seen how modeling the blade shape after an albatross wing affects the data.