Aerodynamic performance and robustness of a nature-inspired concept for a micro-scale wind turbine
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866908566220177408 |
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| author | Catalán, J. M. Arranz, G. Moriche, M. Guerrero-Hurtado, M. García-Villalba, M. Flores, O. |
| author_facet | Catalán, J. M. Arranz, G. Moriche, M. Guerrero-Hurtado, M. García-Villalba, M. Flores, O. |
| contents | We present direct numerical simulations of a novel concept for a micro-scale wind turbine, inspired in the mechanics of the auto-rotation of winged seeds. In this nature-inspired concept the turbine blades have two degrees of freedom: the pitch and the elevation (or coning) angles. These allow the blade to vary its attitude with respect to the incoming velocity seen by the blade (i.e., the tip-speed ratio, $λ$). In order to validate this new concept, we perform numerical simulations of the coupled fluid-solid problem, solving together the Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid and the Newton equations for the rigid body (i.e., the blade). We characterize a preliminary nature-inspired single-blade rotor over a range of operational conditions (including both uniform and turbulent inflows), demonstrating the ability of the novel rotor to extract power at a very low Reynolds number (i.e., $Re=240$ based on the blade's chord and the freestream velocity), significantly changing its attitude in response to different braking torques and tip-speed ratios. The rotor achieves a peak power coefficient of $C_{P,\max} = 0.026$ at $λ\approx 2.0$. This peak value is unchanged between uniform and turbulence-perturbed inflows, demonstrating the robustness of the nature-inspired design. However, performance remains lower than that of fixed-blade configurations, showing that while the concept is feasible and stable, optimization of blade planform and mass distribution is essential to improve efficiency. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_24998 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Aerodynamic performance and robustness of a nature-inspired concept for a micro-scale wind turbine Catalán, J. M. Arranz, G. Moriche, M. Guerrero-Hurtado, M. García-Villalba, M. Flores, O. Fluid Dynamics We present direct numerical simulations of a novel concept for a micro-scale wind turbine, inspired in the mechanics of the auto-rotation of winged seeds. In this nature-inspired concept the turbine blades have two degrees of freedom: the pitch and the elevation (or coning) angles. These allow the blade to vary its attitude with respect to the incoming velocity seen by the blade (i.e., the tip-speed ratio, $λ$). In order to validate this new concept, we perform numerical simulations of the coupled fluid-solid problem, solving together the Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid and the Newton equations for the rigid body (i.e., the blade). We characterize a preliminary nature-inspired single-blade rotor over a range of operational conditions (including both uniform and turbulent inflows), demonstrating the ability of the novel rotor to extract power at a very low Reynolds number (i.e., $Re=240$ based on the blade's chord and the freestream velocity), significantly changing its attitude in response to different braking torques and tip-speed ratios. The rotor achieves a peak power coefficient of $C_{P,\max} = 0.026$ at $λ\approx 2.0$. This peak value is unchanged between uniform and turbulence-perturbed inflows, demonstrating the robustness of the nature-inspired design. However, performance remains lower than that of fixed-blade configurations, showing that while the concept is feasible and stable, optimization of blade planform and mass distribution is essential to improve efficiency. |
| title | Aerodynamic performance and robustness of a nature-inspired concept for a micro-scale wind turbine |
| topic | Fluid Dynamics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24998 |