Tubercle Power: Whale Inspired Wind Turbine
CWSF · 2026 Energy
Overview
Wind turbines are a great source of renewable energy, but there is always room for improvement. In this project I explored the effects of tubercles (little bumps) on the leading edge of wind turbine blades. To answer my question, I constructed various wind turbine models and tested them in various ways to see how the tubercles impacted the amount of energy generated by the model. I also used a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to digitally test my hypothesis. I found that the small tubercle blades were the most efficient, working 8.22% more efficient than the original blades. Through ANSYS, (the CFD) I found that the tubercle modified blades were producing more lift than the original blades. The importance of my project is that it improves existing wind turbine technologies to helps us work towards a more sustainable future.
Awards (1)
- Selected for CWSF 2026
Competition history
- CWSF 2026
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