This paper gives an overview of the design and wind tunnel test results of the wind turbine dedicated airfoils developed by Delft University of Technology (DUT). The DU-airfoils range in maximum relative thickness from 15% to 40% chord. The first designs were made with the XFOIL code. The computer program RFOIL, which is a modified version of XFOIL featuring an improved prediction around the maximum lift coefficient and the capability of predicting the effect of rotation on airfoil characteristics, has been used to design the airfoils since 1995. The measured effect of Gurney flaps, trailing edge wedges, vortex generators (vg) and trip wires on the airfoil characteristics of various DU-airfoils is presented. Furthermore, a relation between the thickness of the airfoil leading edge and the angle-of-attack for leading edge separation is given.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
wind turbines, wind tunnels, physics computing, vortices
Topics:
Airfoils, Wind tunnels, Wind turbines
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Copyright © 2003
 by ASME
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