Morphing Blades

Tidal turbines experience large load fluctuations due to the unsteady environment and shear in tidal flow. Mitigating these without affecting mean would result lower capital operational costs. In this paper we discuss how could be achieved through blades that passively elastically adapt their camber angle of attack counteract flow conditions. Firstly, underlying principles thrust mitigation. We show complete cancellation possible if every blade section pitch independently neighbouring sections. Secondly, provide proof principle for two practical implementations physical experiments computational fluid dynamics simulations. consider a is rigid near leading edge flexible trailing edge. mitigation proportional ratio between length parts blade. For example, where flexibility concentrated hinge at 3/4 chord, amplitude original amplitude. solid, with passive mechanism. that, 1 MW turbine operating flow, more than 80% loading mitigated. These results demonstrate potential effectiveness morphing mitigating on turbines.