Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2013: Turbine Technical Conference and Exposition

GT2013
June 3-7, 2013, San Antonio, Texas, USA

GT2013-95973

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF WIND TURBINE BLADES - WINGLET, TUBERCLE,

AND SLOTTED
Alka Gupta Abdulrahman Alsultan
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

R. S. Amano Sourabh Kumar Andrew D. Welsh

University of Wisconsin- University of Wisconsin- University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee Milwaukee Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT U = Wind speed (in m/s)

Energy is the heart of today's civilization and the demand
seems to be increasing with our growing population.
Alternative energy solutions are the future of energy, whereas
the fossil-based fuels are finite and deemed to become extinct.
The design of the wind turbine blade is the main governing
factor that affects power generation from the wind turbine.
Different airfoils, angle of twist and blade dimensions are the
parameters that control the efficiency of the wind turbine. This
study is aimed at investigating the aerodynamic performance of
the wind turbine blade. In the present paper, we discuss
innovative blade designs using the NACA 4412 airfoil,
comparing them with a straight swept blade. The wake region
was measured in the lab with a straight blade. All the results
with different designs of blades were compared for their
performance. A complete three-dimensional computational
analysis was carried out to compare the power generation in
each case for different wind speeds. It was found from the
numerical analysis that the slotted blade yielded the most power
generation among the other blade designs.
NOMENCLATURE
a = Axial flow induction factor
A = Blade swept area (in m2)
i =Turbulence intensity (k/U2)
k =Turbulence kinetic energy (m2/s2)
L = Chord length (in m)
m=scaling factor for the chord length at different radius
position
n = Number of blades
P = Power generated (in kW)
R = Rotor radius (in m) Power generated (in kW)
T = Torque developed at the hub (N-m)
U d = Wind speed at the rotor disc (in m/s)
Symbols:
 = Twist angle
 = Kinematic viscosity of air (in m2/s)
 = Density of air (in kg/m3)
=Turbulence frequency
= Rotation speed of the fluid volume (in rad/s)
1 INTRODUCTION
Wind energy is one of the fastest growing energy sectors among
renewable energy sources. It has little to no damaging effect on
the environment unlike other major energy sources have, such
as coal, gas, oil and nuclear generated power. Large scale use
of wind energy has the potential to greatly reduce the reliance
on fossil fuels and the associated pollution problems.
Harnessing this wind energy with a wind turbine can provide a
source of clean and renewable electricity for use on large as
well as small scales.
Blades of the turbines are the primary energy conversion
components and continue to be a critical focus area of wind
turbine technology. Increasing effort is being invested in
designing blades for maximum power generation. In this
research, an attempt has been made to investigate newer blade
technology - winglet, tubercle and slotted wind turbine blades,
for power performance. A complete three-dimensional
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was carried out
to study the aerodynamic behavior of each of these
technologies at various wind speeds and to assess the gain in
power generation these newer designs can provide as compared
with a straight blade with the same rotor diameter.

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 Many wind turbine sites have restriction on the rotor diameter
in one form or the other. In those cases, the only way the power
production can be optimized at any specific wind velocity is
through maximizing the power coefficient (Cp) of the wind
turbine [1]. Adding a winglet to the wind turbine blade
improves the power production without increasing the projected
rotor area by diffusing and moving the wing tip vortex (which
rotates around from below the blade), away from the rotor
plane, reducing the downwash and thereby the induced drag on
the blade. The winglet converts some of the otherwise-wasted
energy in the wingtip vortex to an apparent thrust. Figure 1
shows the wingtip vortex being deflected away from the rotor
plane and reduced in size in the case of the blade with a winglet
attached to it, unlike the blade without the winglet.

Figure 2: Top View of a blade with tubercles.

Figure 1: Reduction in the wingtip vortex size with the blended

winglet [2].
The advantage of the wind turbine with a tubercle on the
leading edge of the blades is that it can have the ability to
prolong the stall point while increasing the lift forces. In
addition, the tubercles can effectively be used in the case of
diffuse wind speed availability at most of the sites. The wind
turbine with a tubercle has not yet been implemented for
commercial use and this particular study approach will be
beneficial in that direction [3, 4]. Commercially, the tubercle
fan had been developed and shown to be effective [3], but there
is a considerable effort made to introduce and research further
on optimizing a wind turbine with a tubercle. Figure 2 shows
the top view of the blade with a tubercle on the leading edge.
The motivation of the slotted blade was to introduce an internal
flow within the blade itself, exiting with higher velocity from
the bottom surface of the airfoil. This is achieved by modeling a
flow channel with an entrance, normal to the flow, and a nozzle
profile exit. This flow will displace the upstream flow, creating
the separation of flow under the blade body. The separation of
streams will result in a larger region of high pressure on the
pressure-side (PS) of the blade, and, as a result, higher pressure
difference between the PS and the suction-side (SS) regions,
thus creating more lift. Figure 3 shows the wind turbine blade
with four slots on the bottom surface of the blade.
Figure 3: Bottom view of the slotted blade showing the four
nozzle exits.
2 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
The experimental work of the wind turbine was done for a
straight blade in a subsonic wind tunnel shown in Figure 4. The
wind tunnel of a 3m×3m inlet section with the total length of
14m has a test section dimension of 1.2m×1.2m×2.4m and a
maximum velocity of 25 m/s.
A 1/65th scaled model of the straight edged wind turbine was
manufactured using the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) rapid
prototyping methods for testing. The blades were manufactured
using ABS plastic. The wind turbine manufactured for testing
had a blade length of 0.305m. The Reynolds number seen in
working wind turbines is up to 106. In order to match this type
of Reynolds number in our scaled down environment, the
requirements would be to increase the wind speed and
rotational speed. However, since the maximum wind speed
possible is 25m/s, to get similarity we need to rotate our turbine
at an enormous rate of speed. However, based upon the limited
strength found in rapid prototyped parts, it was determined that
the maximum rotational speed be kept between 300 – 500RPM.
This speed will produce a Reynolds number of around 6 x 10 4.
According to the test data published in fieldline.com, it was
confirmed that the lift/drag ratio becomes independent of the

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 Reynolds number for Reynolds number Re>104 [1]. It was also and a winglet was added to the tip by sweeping the cross-
confirmed by Tangler and Somers the Reynolds no. sectional area at the blade tip along a path such that the radius
independence in this range of flow for the blade 5-25m [2]. of curvature of the bend was 50 percent of the rotor radius,
maintaining the cant angle of 45 degrees and the winglet height
The wind turbine is mounted on the shaft of a DC motor/ of 4 percent rotor radius. Figures 7(a) and (b) show the CAD
generator setup that can measure the power generated from the model of the straight blade and the blade with a winglet,
wind turbine or maintain the rotational speed (refer to Figure respectively.
5). This helps us to measure the power output from a free
rotating wind turbine blade or keep the rotational speed
constant to enable measurement of the velocity distribution and
turbulence intensity variation in the wake region. The wind
tunnel is set up with a 2D hotwire anemometer capable of
measuring the velocity and turbulence intensity in two
directions. The anemometer is mounted on a gantry equipped
with three stepper motors that can move the sensor in all three
directions.

For the uncertanity analysis, each individual velocity sample

was determined and the uncertainity at the calibration
conditions was found to be approximately 1% with a Figure 4: Subsonic Wind Tunnel at UWM.
confidence interval of 95%. When the uncertanity of the
calibrator itself was included, the total uncertanity increased to
about 3%.

3 BLADE DESIGN
This section will focus on the design details of the various wind
turbine blades.

1.1 WINGLET DESIGN

The shape of a winglet is described by six key parameters,
which are shown in Figure 6.

(i) Winglet height

(ii) Sweep angle (a) Data acquisition.
(iii) Cant angle
(iv) Curvature radius
(v) Toe angle
(vi) Twist angle

In wind turbine applications it is more convenient to point the

winglet towards the pressure side (pointing upstream) to avoid
tower clearance issues [5]. It was found from a previous study
[6] that winglets with a cant angle of 45 degrees and a winglet
height 4 percent of the rotor radius generated more power in
comparison with other winglets with a 90 degrees cant angle
and a 2 percent rotor radius winglet height. Therefore, for the
current analysis the former winglet was selected. The airfoil
used in this 20 m rotor radius blade was NACA4412 based on
the fact that it has a high lift to drag ratio of approximately 100
and is the most widely used airfoil profile for the wind turbine
applications.
(b) Scaled straight blade wind turbine.
First, a straight blade of 20 m rotor radius was generated using Figure 5: Data acquisition and turbine.
a NACA4412 airfoil. The distribution of the pitch angle and the
chord length used to generate the straight blade are same as in
[6]. The straight blade was then imported in a CAD software

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 • NACA 4412 airfoil was selected.

• ProE software was used to make the CAD drawing.

• Airfoil with tubercle airfoil coordinates was

calculated.

• For chord length calculations: 3.2602*EXP(-0.085R)

• For twist angle calculations: 45.736*EXP(-0.22R)

The chord length of the original airfoil at different radii was

Figure 6: Key parameters describing a winglet [5]. calculated. Then, considering the rotation angle, the tubercle
blade coordinates were calculated [7]. Figure 8 shows how the
locations of the tubercle are moved for the same airfoil
coordinates.

To calculate the airfoil coordinates, the scaling and the

rotational angle effect were considered, based on the following
equations, where x and y are the coordinates for the
NACA4412 airfoil used for the straight blade and x' and y' are
the corresponding coordinates for the modified tubercle airfoil
with 'm' being the chord length at different radius.

Scaling:
x/ , y/ = mx, my (1)
Rotation:
x/ , y/ = xcosθ - ysinθ, xsinθ + ycosθ (2)

(a) (b)
Figure 7: CAD model of (a) Straight blade, and (b) Blade with
winglet.

1.2 TUBERCLE DESIGN

The blade design was based on NACA 4412. The main concern
in designing the blade with a tubercle was to calculate and
tabulate the right coordinates for the wind turbine blade. For the
development of the blade, the following points were
considered.
Development of the CAD model involved the following steps:

• Choosing the proper airfoil to be the base for our wind Figure 8: Air foil with tubercle and without tubercle.
turbine blade.
1.3 SLOTTED BLADE DESIGN
• Tabulating a set of coordinates to have a solid track
Basically, the slotted blade consists of the same elements of
to extrude on for the wind turbine blade.
construction of a normal straight blade (refer to Figure 9).
• Implementing a CAD model using ProE software. Moreover, it has several slots along its span, and the
performance controlling parameters would be:
The calculations of the tubercle blade were tabulated and the (i) Channel inlet area
tubercle chord length was taken to be 90% of the original chord (ii) Channel outlet area
length. Airfoil coordinates for the original NACA airfoil were (iii) Channel inlet/outlet area ratio
used as a base for all the calculations. (iv) Slot length
(v) slot exit angle

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 (vi) Angle of attack
(vii) Pitch
(viii) Chord
First, a blade with the length of 20 m was extruded using a
CAD program, ProE. The Airfoil used for this design was
NACA4412, which is known for a high lift coefficient. Second,
we made a drawing of square channels 10 cm apart from each
other, and 5 cm away from the farthest edge of the blade.
These channels were placed on the leading edge of the blade
and had the following dimensions (3 m × 5 cm). This drawing
was extruded with a depth of 0.3 m inside the blade body,
which made an interior channel for the upcoming stream to
enter. Furthermore, an exit channel was made on the bottom of
the blade body, connected to the main channel, which allows
the air to exit perpendicular to the main stream. The exit
channel was made to be a nozzle profile that has the following
dimensions (3 m × 4 cm).
slot. A simplified case was considered for numerical
simulations with only one-third of the flow region that
consisted of a single blade attached to the hub with the tower
being ignored. The computational domain was chosen with a
120 degrees sector taken lengthwise along the axis as shown in
Figure 10. A periodic boundary condition was assigned to each
side of the domain. The front and the top planes were given as
velocity inlets. The rear plane was considered as a pressure
outlet boundary condition. The computational domain stretched
5R upstream from the blade and 25R downstream, where R is
the wind turbine blade (or rotor) radius. Both the inlet and the
outlet regions at upstream and downstream, respectively, were
taken as 5R. This size of the domain was selected in order to
eliminate the effect of boundary conditions on the flow around
the blade.

The lift is a result of the differential pressure between the lower

and upper side of the air foil. A flow separation on the lower
region of the air foil will result in a higher pressure gradient.
This high pressure gradient is proportional to lift and drives the
blade toward a higher torque generation. One advantageous
feature of a slotted blade over a straight blade is the creation of
propulsion in the lower side of the blade, which results in
additional propulsion thrust force by generating a higher lift
force. The separation of the flow results in the creation of
eddies, which raises higher pressure on the PS of the airfoil. As
a result, the difference in pressure becomes higher, resulting in
a higher lift.

Figure 10: Boundary conditions.

The accuracy of the CFD solution depends on the quality of the

Figure 9: Side view of the slotted blade showing the slots on
grid used to perform the calculations. A fine mesh is required
the leading edge.
near the wall regions to accurately resolve flow conditions
while a coarser mesh is sufficient away from the wall to
4 NUMERICAL METHOD
maintain computational efficiency. For this analysis, the area of
A complete three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic
interest is the region surrounding the aerodynamically active
(CFD) analysis was performed for a full size blade of 20 m
portion of the blade. A hybrid meshing scheme was used with a
rotor radius for each of the designs discussed in Section 3,
combination of structured mesh near the blade and unstructured
namely, straight blade, straight blade with winglet, blade with
mesh away from the blade.
tubercle at the leading edge, and straight blade with a span-wise

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 A structured mesh was used for the region near the blade
surface as it yields more accurate results due to its superiority
in capturing the viscous effects in the near-wall region, while
for the outer region where the flow is mostly vortex and/or
potential flow, an unstructured mesh was employed. A
structured mesh was generated such that a y+ value of
approximately 1 was achieved on the blade surface, which is
suitable for boundary layer resolution. Figure 11 shows the
mesh generated for the (a) computational domain, (b) blade
with winglet, (c) blade with tubercle at the leading edge, and Figure 11(a): Generated mesh for the computational domain.
(d) slotted blade. The mesh size for the blade on a grid
independent study which was carried out for sizes – 4.2, 4.7 Zoomed up view of the mesh on a blade
and 5.3 million elements was chosen to be 4.7 million elements.
It was found that the accuracy of results changed less than 2%
for a higher sized mesh and so to save computational efforts the
aforesaid size was used. Inflation was added to the blade
surface to make a fine mesh all around the winglet blade such
that the y-plus value is around 1 (see Fig. 11(b)). Also, face
sizing was done for finer mesh on the blade surface. Then the
tip vortices were compared with the straight blade on the same
plane along the blade showing the displaced smaller vortex in
the case of winglet blade.

The periodic boundary conditions are intended to ensure that

the flow conditions are exactly the same on both sides of the
domain. The computational domain was given a rotational
speed of 28 rpm about the y-axis. By keeping the blade at rest Figure 11(b): Mesh generated for the blade with winglet .
and setting the complete fluid volume to motion, this has the
same effect as when the blade was in motion. This was done to
avoid the complexity of dynamic meshing, which involves
more computational power. The upstream and the radial
surfaces were specified as velocity inlets. The velocities were
specified in component form with magnitude only in the axial
direction. The downstream boundary was specified as a
pressure outlet where a zero gauge pressure was set. The hub
and the blade surfaces were considered as walls with a no-slip
condition.

The choice of turbulence model greatly affects the accuracy of

the solution. Extensive research has been done [8-12] to
evaluate the turbulence models for the prediction of wind
turbine aerodynamics. It was observed that the k- SST
turbulence model is one of the most suitable models for Figure 11(c): Mesh generated for the blade with tubercle.
capturing the flow physics around the wind turbine blades
because of its capability of considering all three-dimensional
secondary flow effects and non-isotropic turbulence. Through a
well-designed blend function, the k- SST model achieves that
the k- model is used in near-wall regions and the standard k-
model is used in far-wall regions while avoiding common
problems such as the k- model being too sensitive to the inlet
turbulence.

Figure 11(d): Mesh generated for the slotted blade.

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 7.0
Good predictions for the adverse pressure gradients and
separating flow have been reported by researchers who employ 6.0
a k- SST model. Based on these advantages this model 5.0
offers, for the present study the k- SST model was chosen for
all the simulations performed for the various blade designs. 4.0
Computations were performed using the ANSYS Fluent 3.0
software assuming a steady, incompressible and isothermal
flow. 2.0

1.0
The power generated was calculated using the following
equation: 0.0

Figure 12(a): Experimentally measured average wind tunnel

P=n×T× (3) axis velocity (m/s) 0.152m behind the wind turbine taken every
2.5cm.
7.0

5 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 6.0

5.0
Due to a long-term hot wire calibration hardware issue, an
earlier hot wire calibration was used. The following results are 4.0
qualitative and the velocities are approximate. All experiments
3.0
were conducted at approximately 9 m/s. In addition, only the
wind tunnel axis hot wire had a previous calibration close 2.0
enough to the current hot wire to yield reasonable results. The
1.0
following discussion will be framed in terms of velocity
gradients as it is well established that they are the primary 0.0
drivers of turbulence. Figure 12(b): Experimentally measured average wind
tunnel axis velocity (m/s) 0.305m behind the wind turbine taken
As can be seen from Figure 12(a), in the near wake, 15cm every 1.25cm.
behind the turbine plane, the velocity gradients are steep and 7.0
compact. This is very similar to a bell-shaped curve of high
6.0
turbulence at the center and then two more turbulence peaks at
the blade tips before the flow returns to ambient. 5.0

4.0
At 30cm behind the turbine plane (refer to Figure 12(b)), which
is still in the near wake region, the flow structures start to 3.0
become less compact as the turbulence expands. It is of interest
2.0
to note how large an effect the support tube holding the wind
turbine has on the flow structure compared with above the wind 1.0
turbine.
0.0
Figure 12(c): Experimentally measured average wind
At 61cm behind the turbine plane (refer to Figure 12(c)), more tunnel axis velocity (m/s) 0.610m behind the wind turbine taken
dramatic mixing can be seen. The velocity gradients are every 1.25cm.
collapsing in toward the center and transitioning to a single 7.0
bell-shaped curve. Note the large velocity section on the right 6.0
that is capturing the turbulence spreading from the blade tip
turbulence to the center wind turbine turbulence. 5.0

4.0
Again, at 91`cm behind the wind turbine plane (refer to Figure
12(d)), it can be seen that the higher velocity gradients are 3.0
breaking down and diffusing outward. Notice that as the 2.0
measurement planes get further away from the wind turbine
plane, the maximum and minimum values on the contour key 1.0
begin to approach each other. It is also interesting that the 0.0
turbulence on the right has expanded and connected to the wind Figure 12(d): Experimentally measured average wind
tunnel wall. tunnel axis velocity (m/s) 0.914m behind the wind turbine taken
every 1.25cm.

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 The comparison of the velocity for a straight blade case is the pitch angle at all wind speeds were kept constant. Figure 14
listed in Table 1 for an average velocity at the blade hub, mid- shows the variation of power generated with wind speed for
section, and the tip area. The agreement is within 12% straight and different blade designs (winglet, slotted, and
discrepancy and showing reasonable results. The difference is tubercle). As expected, the power generation increases with the
primarily attributed to the energy loss occurring in the wind
increase in the wind, reaches a maximum and then becomes
tunnel measurements.
almost constant due to stalling and flow separation that occurs
at high wind speeds (< 18 m/s).
Table 1 Velocity (m/s) along the blade, wind speed=9m/s
center mid tip The slotted blade was found to be the most effective, with an
Exp 4.02 5.36 6.25 average improvement in power generation to be 13.14% over
Straight blade 4.4 6.0 6.81 the straight blade. This was followed by the performance of the
winglet blade with 3.45% higher power generation on an
average as compared with a straight blade. Although the blade
with a tubercle did not yield good results, yet it can be seen that
the bladeVariation
gives constant power
of Power generation
Output around
with Wind 18 m/s
Speed for and
various
more.
Blade Designs
500

450 Straight Blade

400 Winglet Blade

Slotted Blade

Power Output (kW)

350
Tuburcule Blade
300

250

200

150

100

50
Figure 13: Experimental velocity decay.
0

Figure 13 shows the decay of the main velocity sharp in the 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

region right behind the wind turbine and slowly recovering
downstream by entraining the flow in the wake region.
According to the actuator disk concept [12], the velocity at the
wind turbine blade, Ud, is
U d  U (1  a ) (4)
Using the actuator disc concept, the axial flow induction factor
'a' was determined to be 0.25 from the experimental data, which
is about 24% lower than the theoretical value of 0.33. This
discrepancy is mainly attributed to the kinetic energy loss of the
flow in the wind tunnel.
Through this effort, it was also proven that the scaled turbine
model has reasonably performed for the real size of the turbine
blades.
6 CFD RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The simulations were run at various wind speeds for different
blade designs. The inlet condition for the turbulence intensity
was set as the same with the experimental data which was
measured to i=0.05. The omega value was set accordingly with
the length scale of the chord length. The rotational speed and
Wind Speed (m/s)
Figure 14: Variation of power generated with wind speed for
straight blade and different blade designs.
Figures 15 (a) - (b) show the velocity contours on a plane
through the blade cross-section at the rotor diameter of 13 m for
a wind speed of 9 m/s. It follows from the figures that the
slotted airfoil gives a higher velocity, approximately 55 - 60
m/s on the upper surface as compared with the straight blade
where the velocity is found to be in the range of 40 - 45 m/s.
Moreover, the velocity on the lower surface at the exit of the
slot is found to be of lower magnitude, which results in higher
pressure on the bottom of the airfoil. Thus, the pressure
gradient between the lower and the upper surface is found to be
higher for the slotted blade as compared with the straight blade,
hence creating more lift and power output for the slotted blade.
Figures 16 (a) - (b) show the velocity contours on a plane
passing through the entire span of the blade for a straight blade
and a blade with a winglet for a wind speed of 9 m/s. As can be
observed from the figures, the wingtip vortex has a higher
velocity 18 - 20 m/s for the straight blade whereas for a winglet

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 blade the velocity is around 10 - 12 m/s. This explains why
(a) Straight blade
more energy is wasted in the wingtip vortex for a straight blade
case as compared with a blade with a winglet attached at the
tip. Also, more energy loss would lead to less useful energy
available at the hub for the straight blade than for the winglet
blade.

Figure 17 shows the velocity contours on a plane passing

through the entire span of the blade for a blade with a tubercle
for a wind speed of 9 m/s. As can be observed from the figure,
the higher velocity for a tubercle is around 20-24 m/s at the
leading edge. (b) Winglet blade

(a) Straight blade

Figure 16: Velocity contours for (a) Straight blade, and (b)
Winglet blade.

(b) Slotted blade

Figure 15: Velocity contours for (a) Straight blade, and (b)
Slotted blade.

Figure 18 show the velocity vectors on a plane passing through

the entire span of the blade with a tubercle for a wind speed of
9 m/s. As can be observed from the figure, the higher velocity
30 m/s for a tubercle and vectors are attached to the surface of
the tubercle; hence, the separation will be delayed. This might
be the reason for the loss in power but the flow is very stable in
this case. The use of a thick airfoil might help to achieve better
Figure 17: Velocity contours on the blade surface for tubercle
results.
blade.

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Figure 18: Velocity vectors on the blade surface for tubercle
blade.
These results may potentially endorse the use of tubercle wind
usage for much higher wind velocities over other turbine blades
without causing any major stall due to its capability of
suppressing flow instability.
7 CONCLUSIONS
An aerodynamic investigation was carried out in order to assess
the advantage of the new designs (winglet, tubercle, slotted)
over the straight blade. This investigation was achieved with
the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.
The results show that slotted blade performed the best among
the other blade designs; at 9 m/s the straight blade yielded
198.1 kW of power, whereas the slotted blade gave a great
improvement, approximately 19.3% more power, yielding
236.3kW. On the other hand, the winglet design gave some
improvements, increasing the power generation by
approximately 2.5%, and generating 203 kW of power.
However, the tubercle showed a decrease in power generation,
giving 45.8 kW. Although the power generation decreased with
tubercle, the flow was found to be more stable. . In addition,
such tubercle blade has a great potential for higher performance
with the wind speed much higher than a nominal level due to its
favorable feature of stabilizing the flow over the blades. Future
work would involve the experimental validation of the
numerical results and more elaborate study on all types of the
blades.
8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is currently funded by US DOE DE-EE0000545
and NSF CBET-1236312.
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9 REFERENCES
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[8] Pape, A.L. and Lecanu, J., "3D Navier-Stokes
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