Blade Aerodynamics & Design

We offer all disciplines of a wind turbine rotor blade design. SMART BLADE focuses especially on blades for small wind energy and unique designs for academic research or prototype projects. 

Airfoil Aerodynamics

SMART BLADE has in-house capabilities for advanced airfoil simulations. We can offer the full scope from airfoil simulation over to experimental validation in the wind tunnel. 2D and 3D CFD simulations are applied for the determination of the aerodynamic performance of the blades.

Wind Tunnel Testing

Through our close collaboration with the Hermann Föttinger Institute of the Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin), we have direct access to the large wind tunnel of the institute (GroWiKa). This is where we test our profiles in order to validate and tune our simulations.

Having years of experience in experimental aerodynamics, we offer the whole spectrum of wind tunnel testing to our customers.

Load Analysis

For our load calculations, we use the open-source routines around FAST over other commercial software since we are able to adapt the codes individually to our needs. We find of great importance to optimize the interfaces between the individual calculation codes, to maximize our efficiency.

We perform our load case simulations according to the required international standards such as DNV-GL guideline or IEC-61400 standard.

Structural Design

For the structural design of our rotor blades, we cooperate closely with our partners CompBlades and the CORE-Team of the University of Patras. Collectively, we bring decades of experience in blade design, manufacturing and composites. We form a strategic alliance which our customers profit from.

We have developed a fully integrated state-of-the-art non-linear beam model tool that serves as a preliminary stage to more detailed FEA simulations.

Small Wind Turbine Rotor Blades

We provide rotor blades for small and medium-sized wind turbines. We offer custom blade design and manufacturing processes with various materials, tailored to our customer's needs. As the demands in this area vary, we offer individual and flexible solutions matching the requirements of every system.

Small wind turbine blades are usually not equipped with active power regulation systems (e.g. blade pitch) while at the same time they need to achieve high performance in order to achieve the energy production expectations of the customers. That makes the cost-effective aerodynamic and structural design of such blades a quite demanding task.