Computational Modeling of Gurney Flaps and Microtabs by POD Method

Unai Fernandez-Gamiz, Macarena Gomez-Mármol and Tomas Chacón-Rebollo
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Unai Fernandez-Gamiz: Nuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics Department, University Basque Country, UPV/EHU, 01006 Vitoria, Spain
Macarena Gomez-Mármol: Department Ecuac Diferenciales & Anal Numer, Fac Mathematics, University Seville, 41012 Seville, Spain
Tomas Chacón-Rebollo: Department Ecuac Diferenciales & Anal Numer, Fac Mathematics, University Seville, 41012 Seville, Spain

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Gurney flaps (GFs) and microtabs (MTs) are two of the most frequently used passive flow control devices on wind turbines. They are small tabs situated close to the airfoil trailing edge and normal to the surface. A study to find the most favorable dimension and position to improve the aerodynamic performance of an airfoil is presented herein. Firstly, a parametric study of a GF on a S810 airfoil and an MT on a DU91(2)250 airfoil was carried out. To that end, 2D computational fluid dynamic simulations were performed at Re = 10 6 based on the airfoil chord length and using RANS equations. The GF and MT design parameters resulting from the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations allowed the sizing of these passive flow control devices based on the airfoil’s aerodynamic performance. In both types of flow control devices, the results showed an increase in the lift-to-drag ratio for all angles of attack studied in the current work. Secondly, from the data obtained by means of CFD simulations, a regular function using the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) was used to build a reduced order method. In both flow control cases (GFs and MTs), the recursive POD method was able to accurately and very quickly reproduce the computational results with very low computational cost.

Keywords: wind energy; flow control; Gurney flaps; microtabs; proper orthogonal decomposition; reduced order method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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