Inspired by bird wings that enable robust aerodynamic force production and stable flight, we propose a
biomimetic blade design for small wind turbines that is capable of achieving a high integral power
coefficient, Cp, over a broad range of tip-speed ratios, l, and hence enhances robustness in aerodynamic
performance. We first developed a basic blade design with bird-inspired flexed wing morphology and
investigated its aerodynamic characteristics with computational fluid dynamics. Our results demonstrated
that the swept-forward shaped portion proximal to wing root augmented Cp at smaller l, whereas
the distal swept-backward shaped portion improved Cp at larger l. We further conducted a morphology
optimization and developed an optimized flexion blade that is capable of achieving a remarkably
improved Cp over a broad range of l. To evaluate the aerodynamic robustness under variable tip-speed
ratios in an integral way, we here propose a new Robustness Index (Ri) and find that the optimizedflexion
blade outperforms a conventional blade based on Blade Element Momentum Theory by 8.1%,
indicating marked robustness in power output. Our results indicate that of great potential for wind
turbines robustness-oriented biomimetic blade design can be a practical and effective methodology in
wind-based sustainable energy harvesting.
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