RT Journal Article
T1 On the feasibility of a flexible foil with passive heave to extract energy from low wind speeds
A1 Fernández-Feria, Ramón
A1 Sanmiguel-Rojas, Enrique
K1 Turbinas
AB We explore numerically and theoretically the capability of flexible foils elasticallymounted to translational springs and dampers at the leading edge to extract energy fromlow-speed winds through its passive heave motion. Given the spring and foil stiffnesses,for each damper constant the theory (which is valid for high Reynolds numbers andsmall foil deflection amplitudes, i.e., in absence of separation) provides analytically aminimum wind velocity for flutter instability, above which energy can be harvested, thatdepends on the thickness-to-chord-length ratio of the foil. Simple analytical expressionsfor the flutter frequency are also provided. Minimum wind speeds and correspondingflutter frequencies are characterized for a carbon fiber foil as the spring stiffness anddamper constant are varied, finding that energy can be extracted from wind speedslower than in conventional wind turbines. These theoretical predictions are assessedfrom full numerical simulations at Reynolds numbers corresponding to these windvelocities and for chord lengths of the order of the meter (i.e. about 106) usingappropriate turbulence models, which allow to compute the power extracted from thewind that the flutter stability analysis cannot provide
PB Elsevier
YR 2022
FD 2022-10
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/25774
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/25774
LA eng
NO R. Fernandez-Feria, E. Sanmiguel-Rojas, On the feasibility of a flexible foil with passive heave to extract energy from low wind speeds, Journal of Fluids and Structures, Volume 114, 2022, 103751, ISSN 0889-9746, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2022.103751
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026