Tuning with feathers
Specialist article about WTS in the magazine “Erneuerbare Energien”.
The efficiency of wind energy rotor blades is a crucial element for competitive wind energy. To increase it, passive self-actuating flaps, which open automatically when the wind flow along the rotor profile is about to break away, are a promising instrument. At the ForWind Centre for Wind Energy Research in Oldenburg, 2D flow simulations and wind tunnel tests are currently being carried out to allow the increase in yield than can be achieved with self-actuating flaps to be precisely predicted. In collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology, the start-up WTS, supported by early-phase investment from KIC InnoEnergy, will test its concept of self-actuating flaps on different rotor blade profiles. Initial calculations and simulations have proved so promising that WTS already has registered patents internationally for the innovative configuration of self-actuating flaps [...]