Performance Effects of Leading Edge Tubercles on the NREL Phase VI Wind Turbine Blade

Several studies on wind energy have been conducted to find possible solutions to power issues related to the variable nature of the wind. One of the most promising seems to be the application of sinusoidal modifications (tubercles) on the leading edge of wind turbine blades. In the present work, a systematic study on the effects of different tubercle configurations on NREL phase VI wind turbine performance is conducted. A design of experiments is used to generate blades with different tubercle amplitude and wavelength that are then simulated by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The resulting power and annual energy production (AEP) are compared with the baseline values noticing a positive effect of tubercles on the power at high wind speeds.