Aerodynamic performance analysis of slotted airfoils for application to wind turbine blades

In this paper we explore the improvement of aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine airfoils under stall conditions through passive boundary layer control using slots. Baseline 5809 airfoil was modified based on CFD calculations. An extensive 2D-numerical study has been done to analyze the effects of slot's location, width and slope and the best configuration was determined. Simulations were done using steady RANS equations; the turbulence closure model has been chosen among four possible choices (standard kappa-epsilon, Spalart-Allmaras, kappa-omega and kappa-omega SST) based on comparison with experimental results. The lift and drag coefficients and lift-over-drag ratio are compared for the different configurations. The results show that the control system improves aerodynamic performance only over a specific range of angles of attack. However, a significant penalty is observed on the airfoil efficiency for the final configuration, this penalty results from higher drag than the baseline airfoil at low angles of attack. At moderate and high angles of attack, from 10 to 20, the slot configuration outperforms the baseline configuration. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.