General Electric Company

Drew Adam Wetzel

James Robert Tobin

Stefan Herr

Andreas Herrig

Murray Fisher

Benoit Philippe Petitjean

Madireddi Vasu Datta

Kevin Wayne Kinzie

Christian Aloysius Carroll

Jonathan Glenn Luedke

Benjamin Patrick Hallissy

Jonathon Paul Baker

Robert Ehrmann

Benoit Philippe Armand Petitjean

A rotor blade assembly of a wind turbine includes a rotor blade having an aerodynamic body with an inboard region and an outboard region. The inboard and outboard regions define a pressure side, a suction side, a leading edge, and a trailing edge. The inboard region includes a blade root, whereas the outboard region includes a blade tip. The rotor blade also defines a chord and a span. Further, the inboard region includes a transitional region of the rotor blade that includes a maximum chord. Moreover, a unitless first derivative of the chord with respect to the span of the rotor blade in the transitional region ranges from about &#x2212;0.10 to about 0.10 from the maximum chord over about 15% of the span of the rotor blade. In addition, the unitless first derivative of the chord with respect to the span a slope of a change in the chord in is greater than about &#x2212;0.03 at an inflection point of the chord in the outboard region.

Wind turbine rotor blade assembly for reduced noise

A rotor blade assembly for a wind turbine is presented. The rotor blade assembly includes a rotor blade having a surface, where the surface of the rotor blade includes an inclined groove. The rotor blade assembly further includes at least one add-on element mounted on the surface of the rotor blade via a bonding interface downstream of the inclined groove such that particulate matter in an airflow upstream of the at least one add-on element is deflected away from the bonding interface between the surface of the rotor blade and the at least one add-on element. The wind turbine having the rotor blade assembly is also presented.

Rotor blade assembly and a wind turbine having the rotor blade assembly

The present disclosure is directed to methods for attaching a plurality of surface features to a rotor blade of a wind turbine. Such methods may include direct molding of the surface features to the rotor blade, bonding arrays of connected components to the rotor blade and subsequently removing connections between components, as well as using a flexible template with or without a tinted adhesive.

Attachment methods for surface features of wind turbine rotor blades

Vortex generators for wind turbine rotor blades having noise-reducing features are mounted within a laminar flow region on either the pressure side or the suction side of the rotor blade and have a base portion with at least one airflow modifying element extending therefrom. The base portion has a leading edge and a trailing edge extending in a first direction. Further, the base portion includes one or more edge features formed within either or both of the leading or trailing edges. Moreover, the edge features are non-parallel with respect to the first direction so as to reduce laminar boundary layer instability noise.

Vortex generators for wind turbine rotor blades having noise-reducing features

A method for reducing noise of a wind turbine includes monitoring, via one or more sensors, a wind speed at the wind turbine. The method also includes determining, via a turbine controller, a nominal wind direction for producing rated power of the wind turbine. Further, the method includes determining a pitch angle of at least one rotor blade of the wind turbine. As such, the method includes determining a yaw offset for a nacelle of the wind turbine based on the wind speed and/or the pitch angle. Thus, the method further includes changing a yaw angle of the nacelle by the yaw offset when the wind speed exceeds a predetermined threshold so as to reduce noise of the wind turbine.

System and method for reducing wind turbine noise during high wind speed conditions

Growing community of inventors

Easley, SC, United States of America

Drew Adam Wetzel