Vortex generators are often used in the aerospace and the wind energy industry in order to correct or improve the performance of wings and rotorblades. They enhance the the mixing of the outer flow with the wing's boundary layer. This operation re-energizes the boundary layer of the wing and prevents flow separation.

The application of vortex generators on wind turbine blades prevents most of the stall effects that come from blade surface irregularities, blade surface roughness e.t.c. Wind turbine performance increases considerably with the addition of vortex generators and remains constant throughout the operational life of the wind turbine.

Fitting a wind turbine blade with the right vortex generators is not a simple task since each wind turbine blade design requires different vortex generators design and positioning in order to achieve optimal performance.

SMART BLADE offers custom vortex generator designs according to the customer's blade design. These custom vortex generators are simulated with CFD codes and tested in the wind tunnel for performance validation. Through our partnership with the Herman Foettinger Institute (H.F.I) of TU Berlin (Chair of Fluid Dynamics) we have access to the Large Wind Tunnel facilities where we test our custom vortex generator design solutions. For the wind tunnel test a 6-component digital force balance is used for airfoil performance measurements in combination with a mono/stereo Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system for flow investigations.