Published by www.windpowerengineering.com. View original article
Researchers at Rutgers University have invented and tested a patent-pending wind turbine blade deflector that transforms a strong drag force into a strong lifting force. “The deflector, not a vortex generator, is based upon a powerful force that other airfoil designs don’t address,” says Corey Park, CEO of Dynamic Blade Technologies, a company formed to commercialize this technology and other turbine blade inventions. Park says that adding the deflector has the potential to boost turbine output in light to moderate winds by some 20%. For example, if a 3 MW turbine producing 1,000 kW in a particular wind were refitted with the deflectors, it would produce 1,200 kW. What’s more, a 5% power increase typically translates into a 20% increase in profit for turbine owners.
Discoverer and developer, Professor F. Javier Diez, heads the Laboratory for Experimental Fluids and Thermal Engineering at Rutgers. Dr. Diez says he thinks the results could provide the same substantial increase and maybe more at higher wind speeds.
“Once the researchers were able to identify the force that decreased drag, they shaped the deflector to increase the lift,” says Park. He adds that Diez’s team completed 50 laboratory tests on a blade that confirms their initial projections. Because the university still owns the intellectual property for the deflector, Park was unable to provide an image of it.
This deflector technology was invented by Dr. F. Javier Diez, Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University. Dr. Diez is the head of the Laboratory for Experimental Fluids in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rutgers. He is an author of over 50 journal articles, conference papers, and technical publications, and has given over 15 invited lectures in the areas of thermal fluid sciences. His interests include wind turbines and other alternative energies, active flow control, turbulent flows, flow diagnostics, microfluidics, combustion and multiphase flows, all of which have important and diverse applications. His research has been funded by industry and government agencies such as NSF, ONR, NASA, FAA, DARPA, and AFOSR, among others.
The wind turbine experiments were led by Arturo Villega, a PhD candidate at Rutgers in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. His experience and research in the fields of fluid mechanics, image velocimetry techniques and water-tunnel experiments contributed to development of the wind deflector.
The researchers add that the deflectors can be easily affixed to the blades of existing wind turbines. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, there are more than 225,000 large wind turbines around the globe. OEMs could also add the deflectors to new blades at their factories. What’s more, the deflectors could improve the performance of smaller turbines sold to individuals (Lowe’s currently sells a small residential wind turbine), hydroelectric plants, boat propellers, airplane wings, and helicopters. Park says he is in contact with a wind farm owner for tests on utility scale machines. Interested parties and investors can reach Park at corey@bladedeflector.com.
Dynamic Blade Technologies
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The internet is stacked with sites endeavouring to explain the workings of the airfoil. They are generally unconvincing. Bernoulli often gets the credit/blame for the invention but there is a school of thought that suggests it was invented millions of years ago by natural selection and has been improved since then via many species of bird.
In the early 20th century it was made mechanical by the Wright bros in the US and Hargreaves in Australia and so manned flight was born.
Efforts to describe the workings of a turbine blade often involve vector diagrams which sadly are no more helpful than the one used here.
Nonetheless, a wind turbine is a good example of a mechanical system where the input is wind energy and the output is electrical energy.
As usual, the transfer efficiency is medium to low.
If the engineers at Rutgers can improve the efficiency then they are to be applauded.
In any event, although the turbine efficiency may be quite modest, it hardly matters, because the turbine is an example of a class of system where the input is cost free.
Very few complex integrated systems can claim this characteristic, especially those based on chemical inputs.
Such systems have several input costs. The fuel is often a significant cost even in its raw state. If the raw fuel needs to be refined or upgraded before use, the cost is even higher
Maintenance and repairs are a cost especially because of the deterioration that occurs with heat engines.
Health impacts on workers and neighbours represent an upfront as well as an ongoing cost.
Is it any wonder that the output price of such systems is so high.
In comparison, any competing system which has zero input cost is necessarily a much more attractive proposition financially.