Trailing edge modifications for flatback airfoils.

The adoption of blunt trailing edge airfoils (also called flatback airfoils) for the inboard region of large wind turbine blades has been proposed. Blunt trailing edge airfoils would not only provide a number of structural benefits, such as increased structural volume and ease of fabrication and handling, but they have also been found to improve the lift characteristics of thick airfoils. Therefore, the incorporation of blunt trailing edge airfoils would allow blade designers to more freely address the structural demands without having to sacrifice aerodynamic performance. These airfoils do have the disadvantage of generating high levels of drag as a result of the low-pressure steady or periodic flow in the near-wake of the blunt trailing edge. Although for rotors, the drag penalty appears secondary to the lift enhancement produced by the blunt trailing edge, high drag levels are of concern in terms of the negative effect on the torque and power generated by the rotor. Hence, devices are sought that mitigate the drag of these airfoils. This report summarizes the literature on bluff body vortex shedding and bluff body drag reduction devices and proposes four devices for further study in the wind tunnel

Active load control techniques for wind turbines.

This report provides an overview on the current state of wind turbine control and introduces a number of active techniques that could be potentially used for control of wind turbine blades. The focus is on research regarding active flow control (AFC) as it applies to wind turbine performance and loads. The techniques and concepts described here are often described as 'smart structures' or 'smart rotor control'. This field is rapidly growing and there are numerous concepts currently being investigated around the world; some concepts already are focused on the wind energy industry and others are intended for use in other fields, but have the potential for wind turbine control. An AFC system can be broken into three categories: controls and sensors, actuators and devices, and the flow phenomena. This report focuses on the research involved with the actuators and devices and the generated flow phenomena caused by each device

CFD analysis of rotating two-bladed flatback wind turbine rotor.

The effects of modifying the inboard portion of the NREL Phase VI rotor using a thickened, flatback version of the S809 design airfoil are studied using a three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes method. A motivation for using such a thicker airfoil design coupled with a blunt trailing edge is to alleviate structural constraints while reducing blade weight and maintaining the power performance of the rotor. The calculated results for the baseline Phase VI rotor are benchmarked against wind tunnel results obtained at 10, 7, and 5 meters per second. The calculated results for the modified rotor are compared against those of the baseline rotor. The results of this study demonstrate that a thick, flatback blade profile is viable as a bridge to connect structural requirements with aerodynamic performance in designing future wind turbine rotors

Computational design and analysis of flatback airfoil wind tunnel experiment.

A computational fluid dynamics study of thick wind turbine section shapes in the test section of the UC Davis wind tunnel at a chord Reynolds number of one million is presented. The goals of this study are to validate standard wind tunnel wall corrections for high solid blockage conditions and to reaffirm the favorable effect of a blunt trailing edge or flatback on the performance characteristics of a representative thick airfoil shape prior to building the wind tunnel models and conducting the experiment. The numerical simulations prove the standard wind tunnel corrections to be largely valid for the proposed test of 40% maximum thickness to chord ratio airfoils at a solid blockage ratio of 10%. Comparison of the computed lift characteristics of a sharp trailing edge baseline airfoil and derived flatback airfoils reaffirms the earlier observed trend of reduced sensitivity to surface contamination with increasing trailing edge thickness

Flatback airfoil wind tunnel experiment.

A computational fluid dynamics study of thick wind turbine section shapes in the test section of the UC Davis wind tunnel at a chord Reynolds number of one million is presented. The goals of this study are to validate standard wind tunnel wall corrections for high solid blockage conditions and to reaffirm the favorable effect of a blunt trailing edge or flatback on the performance characteristics of a representative thick airfoil shape prior to building the wind tunnel models and conducting the experiment. The numerical simulations prove the standard wind tunnel corrections to be largely valid for the proposed test of 40% maximum thickness to chord ratio airfoils at a solid blockage ratio of 10%. Comparison of the computed lift characteristics of a sharp trailing edge baseline airfoil and derived flatback airfoils reaffirms the earlier observed trend of reduced sensitivity to surface contamination with increasing trailing edge thickness

Unitarity bounds on low scale quantum gravity

We study the unitarity of models with low scale quantum gravity both in four dimensions and in models with a large extra-dimensional volume. We find that models with low scale quantum gravity have problems with unitarity below the scale at which gravity becomes strong. An important consequence of our work is that their first signal at the Large Hadron Collider would not be of a gravitational nature such as graviton emission or small black holes, but rather linked to the mechanism which fixes the unitarity problem. We also study models with scalar fields with non minimal couplings to the Ricci scalar. We consider the strength of gravity in these models and study the consequences for inflation models with non-minimally coupled scalar fields. We show that a single scalar field with a large non-minimal coupling can lower the Planck mass in the TeV region. In that model, it is possible to lower the scale at which gravity becomes strong down to 14 TeV without violating unitarity below that scale.Comment: 15 page

Characterization of anticoagulant heparinoids by immunoprofiling

Heparinoids are used in the clinic as anticoagulants. A specific pentasaccharide in heparinoids activates antithrombin III, resulting in inactivation of factor Xa and–when additional saccharides are present–inactivation of factor IIa. Structural and functional analysis of the heterogeneous heparinoids generally requires advanced equipment, is time consuming, and needs (extensive) sample preparation. In this study, a novel and fast method for the characterization of heparinoids is introduced based on reactivity with nine unique anti-heparin antibodies. Eight heparinoids were biochemically analyzed by electrophoresis and their reactivity with domain-specific anti-heparin antibodies was established by ELISA. Each heparinoid displayed a distinct immunoprofile matching its structural characteristics. The immunoprofile could also be linked to biological characteristics, such as the anti-Xa/anti-IIa ratio, which was reflected by reactivity of the heparinoids with antibodies HS4C3 (indicative for 3-O-sulfates) and HS4E4 (indicative for domains allowing anti-factor IIa activity). In addition, the immunoprofile could be indicative for heparinoid-induced side-effects, such as heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, as illustrated by reactivity with antibody NS4F5, which defines a very high sulfated domain. In conclusion, immunoprofiling provides a novel, fast, and simple methodology for the characterization of heparinoids, and allows high-throughput screening of (new) heparinoids for defined structural and biological characteristics

Categorizing Different Approaches to the Cosmological Constant Problem

We have found that proposals addressing the old cosmological constant problem come in various categories. The aim of this paper is to identify as many different, credible mechanisms as possible and to provide them with a code for future reference. We find that they all can be classified into five different schemes of which we indicate the advantages and drawbacks. Besides, we add a new approach based on a symmetry principle mapping real to imaginary spacetime.Comment: updated version, accepted for publicatio