Research on the Aerodynamic Performance of the Wind Turbine Blades with Leading-Edge Protuberances

The aerodynamic performance loss of wind turbine blades caused by severe flow separation is one of the main reasons for hindering the utilization of offshore wind energy. The leading-edge protuberances (LEPs) have been shown to be an effective passive control method with suppressed flow separation. This paper proposes a method for predicting the effect of the LEPs on the aerodynamic performance of the wind turbine airfoil and develops an optimized design method for the parameters of the LEPs. The GH-Bladed platform is used to verify the influence of the LEPs method on the load performance of the blades. The study found that the developed method can realize the optimization design of the aerodynamic performance for the wind turbine airfoil with LEPs, and obtain the structural parameters of the LEPs to improve the value CL/CD by 2%–11% in the post-stall region. Moreover, the average load and the standard deviation of the load for the blades with LEPs are reduced by 7% and 17% respectively near the rated wind speed of 8.7 m/s. This study realized the feasibility of the optimal design of the wind turbine airfoil with LEPs and verified the effectiveness of the LEPs technology applied to wind turbine blades.