Applying Spiroid Winglet on the Tip of NREL 5 MW Offshore Wind Turbine's Blade to Investigate Vortex Effects

Abstract

The present research describes the numerical investigation of the aerodynamics around a wind turbine blade with a winglet using Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD. In this project our goal is to applying spiroid winglet to examine of the vortex effects on the tip of wind turbine's blade known as "NREL offshore 5-MW baseline wind turbine". At present this method has not yet been implemented in the wind energy sector, in particular because their production still involves excessive costs, compared to the benefits obtainable in terms of wind energy field. A spiroid winglet was investigated with different twist distribution and camber in which pointing towards the suction side (downstream). The comparisons have been done between two operating conditions in terms of pressure, thrust, torque, relative velocity, streamlines, vorticity and then mechanical power.