Study on Structural Improvements of the Wind Turbine Blades

풍력 발전기 블레이드의 구조 개선에 대한 연구

The wind power energy has been suggested as alternative energy source because it is economically more feasible than other alternative energy technologies. The size of commercial wind turbines has dramatically increased to improve their energy conversion efficiency. The wind turbine blade loads become more important as the wind turbines increase in their size. The modern large-size wind turbine blades generally use sandwich structures and thick laminates to withstand the aerodynamic loads. And the biplane blade design was proposed to use a biplane inboard region to improve overall performance of large blades. The individual pitch control (IPC) facilitates structural load reduction without blade shape alteration. Active flow control methods, such as trailing-edge flap, adaptive compliant wing, micro-tab, have been proposed as viable and effective devices for active load control applications. In order to alleviate the wind turbine blade loads, various researches are under going.