Nazarbayev University Repository - MORPHING WING TURBINE BLADES WITH ROTARY ACTUATION USING DIFFERENTIAL THERMAL EXPANSION PRINCIPAL
Wind turbines are widespread technology that allows to generate electrical energy and already achieved complete technology readiness level. Nevertheless, with uprising researches in morphing architectures allowed to spot out a gap in the design of wind turbine blade. In order to improve the effectiveness or to improve the stiffness of the whole structure by reducing bending stress at the core. This paper studies the possibility of implementing bimetallic strip as an actuator to morph the blade as there has not been seen any concepts with this approach. A proper pair of metal strips and optimal layout design will lead to a decent level of curvature. The curvature of such bimetal strip is described by several material properties which are coefficient of thermal expansion, temperature, cross sections of the strips, Young’s modulus. The aerodynamic control concept behind the morphing is chosen to be the twist of a blade in the out-of-plane transformation which can be advantageous for small wind turbines. As one of the noticeable features of a bimetallic strip, which is simplicity, requires only the strip itself made of two different metals with different coefficient thermal expansion.
