Owl Wings Inspire To Design Silent Wind Turbines ~ Friendly Eco Might

Sunday 12 July 2015

Owl Wings Inspire To Design Silent Wind Turbines

Owl Wings

The most normally heard complaint about wind turbines is that they are noisy. Wind farms are normally set up far from communities that the noise is insignificant, however another biomimetic innovation enlivened by the stealthy flight of owls could prompt wind turbines, planes and PC fans that are for all virtually quiet.

Why Do We Need Silent Wind Turbines?


This would not just calm the turbines and make groups more open to having them close-by, but since wind turbines are intensely braked so as to keep noise to a small extent, having an approach to make them work discreetly could imply that the blades could keep running at much higher speeds and deliver more energy. Moreover, normal sized wind farms could add a few megawatts to their ability.

Also Read: Wind Energy Lead Over Nuclear Energy In China
 

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, came up with a prototype coating for wind turbine blades which could make them calmer and they owe the progression to one of nature's most prominent hunters, the owl. Owls don't just have extraordinary vision and sharp claws, they additionally utilize some really astonishing engineering in their wings that permits them to fly and plunge for prey silently.

"No other flying creature has this kind of perplexing wing structure" says Professor Nigel Peake of Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who drove the examination. "A lot of noise by a wing – whether its connected to a bird, a plane or a fan – begins at the trailing edge where the air passing over the wing surface is turbulent. The structure of an owl's wing provides to lessen noise by smoothing the section of air as it passes over the wing – disseminating the sound so their prey can't hear them advancing."

Peake and his group from Virginia Tech, Lehigh and Florida Atlantic Universities, considered owls' flight quills under high resolution microscope and found that the wings are secured with a wool covering that looks like a forest canopy when seen from above, an adaptable brush of bristles on the main edge, and in particular, a permeable and elastic edge of feathers at the trailing edge that hoses sound.

The analysts then began to build up a coating that could reproduce the impact of the periphery that scatters sound. They thought of a permeable coating made of 3D-printed plastic. In wind passage tests, the coating diminished the clamor produced by a wind turbine blade by 10 decibels, without influencing aerodynamics.

The analysts plan to test the coating on operational wind turbines to check whether they enhance the power yield while holding the noise down.






Tags:
Silent Wind Turbines, Quiet Wind Turbines, Silent Wind Turbine Design, Silent Wind Turbine Blades, Silent Domestic Wind Turbines, owl wings inspire quieter wind turbines, owl wings 

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Somanath Yadavalli

He is the founder of Friendly Eco Might and professionally a software engineer. He has a Bachelor's degreee in Electronics and Communication from The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, India. He is managing several blogs from his own living room and spreading the word for saving our planet Earth. Read more...

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