Vortex Generators on Wind Generator

[lancie00]

Coming into work this morning I had a new wind generator blade cross the road in front of me. (We're in the middle of wind generator heaven.) I was surprised to see vortex generators on the inboard section of the blade. Sorry I didn't get any pics because I was driving but that's the first I've seen them on those big blades. I suppose it makes sense, I'd never thought about it before.

 

[GeorgeC]

Some times you feel like a vortex, some times you don't:

https://www.cmrp.com/blog/bending/examples-of-vortex-shredding-mitigated-by-helical-strakes.html

 

[Eric Stoltz]

Some times you feel like a vortex, some times you don't:

https://www.cmrp.com/blog/bending/examples-of-vortex-shredding-mitigated-by-helical-strakes.html

Well no siht, howboutdat, L I B. I can't believe I just learnted something.

 

[thebruce]

Some times you feel like a vortex, some times you don't:

https://www.cmrp.com/blog/bending/examples-of-vortex-shredding-mitigated-by-helical-strakes.html

That's just cool. If they would have taught like that in my undergrad aero classes I might have been awake for most of them.

 

[GRG55]

One of the most famous examples of this vortex shedding phenomenon (known as the von Karman vortex street, after the fluid dynamicist Theodore von Karman) is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse.

It's caused by the alternating shedding of vortices around a blunt obstruction in the fluid flow. It causes the object to move/vibrate 90 degrees to the flow direction, and the amplitude varies depending on flow velocity. Wires that "sing" in the wind, or car antennas that vibrate when they get coated with a bit of ice are other examples.

 

[thebruce]

And of course there are also studies that show VGs on wind turbine blades improve efficiency, which is completely different than strakes on cylindrical towers: https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_Wind_Turbine_Blade_with_Vortex_Generators