Engineered Textile Blade with Actively controlled surface/profile
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
Following the successful Early Stage Catalyst, this project will seek to develop the actively controlled, textile-tensioned blade technology to a prototype stage. The key work-packages are:
WP1: wind tunnel tests to validate the blade power performance. The Aerospace Sciences Division at the University of Glasgow (UG) will be in charge of the test design, execution and results validation. The tests will cover both the passive and actively controlled blade. The models for the passive blade will be manufactured by the UG, while Smar Azure (SA) will provide the blade models for the active blade. Ore Catapult (CA) will advise on the development and testing process.
The work package will comprise three sub-packages:
(a) evaluation of the static aerodynamic characteristics of aerofoil sections representative of the undeformed and deformed blade.
(b) evaluation of the static aerodynamic and deformation characteristics of a representative section of the new, flexible blade concept;
(c) evaluation of the static aerodynamic characteristics of the active blade concept with different candidate actuators.
WP2: textile tests to validate erosion and durability. WP2 will be carried out by SA and CA. Dimension Polyant (DP), the world leader textile manufacturer, will supply the materials.
WP3: engineering and production optimization, including design of embedded control systems, active control and production cost reduction. WP3 will be carried out by SA in collaboration with CA. It will be necessary to contact sensors and carbon artefact providers to optimise the manufacturing and reduce the production costs.
WP4: build a blade prototype for testing purposes. Ideally, it will be taken to a small rig for initial tests in a real environment.
WP5: commercial strategy development (SA and CA).
WP1: wind tunnel tests to validate the blade power performance. The Aerospace Sciences Division at the University of Glasgow (UG) will be in charge of the test design, execution and results validation. The tests will cover both the passive and actively controlled blade. The models for the passive blade will be manufactured by the UG, while Smar Azure (SA) will provide the blade models for the active blade. Ore Catapult (CA) will advise on the development and testing process.
The work package will comprise three sub-packages:
(a) evaluation of the static aerodynamic characteristics of aerofoil sections representative of the undeformed and deformed blade.
(b) evaluation of the static aerodynamic and deformation characteristics of a representative section of the new, flexible blade concept;
(c) evaluation of the static aerodynamic characteristics of the active blade concept with different candidate actuators.
WP2: textile tests to validate erosion and durability. WP2 will be carried out by SA and CA. Dimension Polyant (DP), the world leader textile manufacturer, will supply the materials.
WP3: engineering and production optimization, including design of embedded control systems, active control and production cost reduction. WP3 will be carried out by SA in collaboration with CA. It will be necessary to contact sensors and carbon artefact providers to optimise the manufacturing and reduce the production costs.
WP4: build a blade prototype for testing purposes. Ideally, it will be taken to a small rig for initial tests in a real environment.
WP5: commercial strategy development (SA and CA).
Planned Impact
Wind energy is forecast to make a significant contribution to the UK's transition towards a more sustainable, secure and carbon-free energy system. Innovation is required to reduce the cost of wind energy and enable economic exploitation of this sustainable and secure energy source to its fullest extent, particularly in offshore locations. The Strategic Research Agenda (by European Wind Energy, 2014) clearly describes the importance of the wind turbine rotor, the need to develop larger blades and the integration of advanced control features in blades. The Early Stage Catalyst project showed that the actively-controlled, textile-covered blade can address the key challenges for the design and manufacture of very large blades and enable an increase of annual energy production by 15%.
The textile-engineered blade with actively controlled surface/profile pushes the boundaries beyond the current leading edge technology used to produce blades. It has the potential to bring comprehensive benefits with improved efficiency (enabling longer blades +15% annual energy production), improved control (because of the low mass and higher stiffness, the natural frequencies are higher), easier transportation (possibility to be transported in components and assembled on-site), reduced system loads (because of the ability to change shape), and better maintenance (textile can be replaced, monitoring sensors provide feedback for appropriate maintenance).
Additional impact related purely to the University activities are provided below:
- contribution to the impact of the innovative blade developments through the provision of state of the art testing facilities to validate the novel concepts, as detailed by the Lead partner;
- establishing a closer tie with industry, a key NWTF aim, creating a pull-through environment and an intended spill-over of the collaboration and benefits to other sectors;
- the recruitment of students into aerospace programmes. A key feature of this activity is the promotion of an aerospace education as a pathway to diverse range of potential careers, including renewable energy;
- strengthening research in related areas, e.g. aeroelastic tailoring of flexible wings
- helping to secure further internal funding of research through School and University scholarships
The textile-engineered blade with actively controlled surface/profile pushes the boundaries beyond the current leading edge technology used to produce blades. It has the potential to bring comprehensive benefits with improved efficiency (enabling longer blades +15% annual energy production), improved control (because of the low mass and higher stiffness, the natural frequencies are higher), easier transportation (possibility to be transported in components and assembled on-site), reduced system loads (because of the ability to change shape), and better maintenance (textile can be replaced, monitoring sensors provide feedback for appropriate maintenance).
Additional impact related purely to the University activities are provided below:
- contribution to the impact of the innovative blade developments through the provision of state of the art testing facilities to validate the novel concepts, as detailed by the Lead partner;
- establishing a closer tie with industry, a key NWTF aim, creating a pull-through environment and an intended spill-over of the collaboration and benefits to other sectors;
- the recruitment of students into aerospace programmes. A key feature of this activity is the promotion of an aerospace education as a pathway to diverse range of potential careers, including renewable energy;
- strengthening research in related areas, e.g. aeroelastic tailoring of flexible wings
- helping to secure further internal funding of research through School and University scholarships
People |
ORCID iD |
| Marco Vezza (Principal Investigator) | |
| R Green (Co-Investigator) |
| Description | - The value of the NWTF as a facility to support the wind energy sector in the development of new products and devices. Having attracted pervious significant investment, the facility has been used to support test campaigns across avariety of industrial sectors. The current research has extended this to 2-D testing of aerofoil sections. - The manufacturing challenges associated with testing models of aerofoils with deformable surfaces. Difficulties in manufacturing blade models with textile surfaces became apparent early on in the project. Having learned from this the second textile model was of better quality, and provided valuable input to the choice of trailing-edge to take forward in the product development - The impact of deformable surfaces on the performance of aerofoils for wind turbine applications. Detailed differences in aerodynamic loads on wing sections with solid and deformable bodies were investigated and identified. Notable differences in stalling characteristics and drag levels were notable. - The local and global effects of surface imperfections on the aerodynamic characteristics of aerofoils for wind turbine applications. Examples of local effects were indicated by surface repair patches, which exhibited very interesting variation in drag and flow structure over the surface. Examples of global affects are the modelling of roughened surfaces using turbulator strips. |
| Exploitation Route | The academic team will seek to publish some of the work undertaken during the project in consultation with the industrial partner to avoid issues of confidentially. The industrial partner is continuing with the development of the textile blade beyond the end of the project. Test methods developed and equipment procured at the NWTF during the project will be available for future users undertaking other test campaigns - e.g. load measurement system upgrade, wake rake system development. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy |
| Description | The findings have been directly used by the industrial partner in the ongoing development of the engineered textile blade. The impact of aerofoil characteristics and surface imperfections on predicted performance measures, e.g. annual energy production from turbine with installed blades have been regularly updated based on both test results from the Glasgow team and simulations carried out within the company. Information on the differences between solid and deformable blade surfaces is also of direct significance to the product development team. The experimental capability which was developed to undertake the project has been utilised for the benefit of other SMEs interested in assessing new concepts in wind turbine aerofoil design, e.g. the impact of leading-edge erosion shields on aerodynamic performance. Applications in marine renewables have also also benefited from the enhanced capability, through validation test programmes to support optimised wind-assisted propulsion technology (ETP funded project). The study has had spin-off benefit within the academic programmes in the School of Engineering, spawning MEng and MSc projects into CFD modelling of surface imperfections on wind turbine blades. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Education,Energy |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | ETP Energy Industry Doctorate Scheme |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ETP 153 |
| Organisation | Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 07/2021 |
| Description | ETP Energy Industry Doctorate Scheme |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ETP 153 |
| Organisation | SMAR Azure |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 07/2021 |
| Description | ETP Energy Industry Doctorate Scheme |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ETP 153 |
| Organisation | University of Glasgow |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 07/2021 |
| Title | Load measurement for 2-D testing set-up |
| Description | The current load cell arrangement in the wind tunnel working section had to be modified to accommodate new 2-D testing set-up within the NWTF facility. A test chamber was constructed inside the working section to facilitate the tests. This enhancement is now available for all future testing of this nature. A new automated, multi-probe wake rake system was also installed and calibrated for drag measurements. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The new set-up was an essential component of a successful proposal to the ETP Industry Doctorate Scheme, to fund a new PhD project, starting 1 February 2018. |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/engineering/research/divisions/aerospace/researchfacilities/fluiddynam... |
| Description | Collaboration with ACT Blade |
| Organisation | Act Blade Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The research project had joint funding contributions by Innovate UK and EPSRC, with the industrial component funded by the former. ACT Blade led the overall project, with the University of Glasgow providing the wind tunnel testing support at the NWTF. Details of the test phases are provided under the outputs section of the form. Design of experiments and models were done in collaboration with the industrial partner. Reports on test results were delivered to the industrial partners and reported at the appropriate quarterly meetings attended by the Innovate UK monitoring officer. The project also furthered the training of the PDRA employed during part of the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The industrial partners supplied the majority of the wind tunnel models for the test programmes, and were integrally involved in the test design and scheduling aspects. |
| Impact | Three reports for the industrial partner on the three wind tunnel test campaigns. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | 4th University of Glasgow Aerospace Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plenary lectures from major industrial stakeholders (e.g. Airbus, Spirit AeroSystems, BAE Systems, Scottish Government, European Aeronautics Science Network (EASN), Advanced Propulsion, National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme (NATEP), ADS Group), working groups, and poster presentations on University of Glasgow research activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://ceed-scotland.com/partner-events/university-glasgow-aerospace-symposium-2017 |
| Description | National Wind Tunnel Facility Advisory Board |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An Advisory Board (AB), meeting quarterly, oversees the broader aims of the NWTF, monitors the running of the NWTF and reviews progress versus Key Performance Indicators. The AB is composed of representatives from EPSRC, ATI, senior academics (from the UK and abroad), representatives from industry, an existing National Facility Manager and is chaired by an independent senior UK-based aerodynamicist. The meetings provide an opportunity to present portfolios of wide tunnel usage, including the current project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.nwtf.ac.uk |
| Description | Rushlight Summer Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Opportunity to present the collaboration, and in particular the NWTF facility, to a wide audience of developers, European investors & financiers, corporate venturers, government departments, consultants, intermediaries, advisers and businesses looking to source suppliers and partners for an improved level operations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.rushlightevents.com/rushlight-summer-showcase/ |
| Description | Scottish Parliamentary Reception |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An event to highlight the opportunities for STEM careers in the aerospace and related industry sectors and to introduce some of Scotland's brightest and best apprentices and graduates who are beginning their STEM career journey in one of Scotland's key technology companies. For the research team the event provided an opportunity to promote the University of Glasgow as a major contributor to the provision of graduates into STEM careers. It also provided an opportunity to liaise with key industrial stakeholders regarding the use of the NWTF facility at the University of Glasgow |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |