Humpback Whales Help Design Improved Wind Turbines

Posted by Dawn M. Smith Sep 16, 2008

When you look at a picture of a humpback whale, the thing that stands out first is the long fins, called flukes. You may have seen them used to slap the water or help the humpback whales to shoot out of the sea in their spectacular breaches. You may not have noticed how bumpy those flukes are. Or you did, and like me, didn’t spend much time thinking about why they might be that way.

I won’t even begin to try to explain how they figured this out but basically those tubercles serve a purpose. They change the way water flows over the fluke, making it easier for the humpback whale to turn without sliding sideways in the process.

But that’s what Dr Frank Fish and colleagues at Whalepower did. They figured out what those tubercles did and then decided to apply it to the blades of wind turbines. Those turbine blades don’t work so well in very low, very high or gusty winds. They tend to stall and break when the wind is not steady and consistently moderate speed.

Redesigning the turbines with tubercle type leading edges has resulted in test blades that produce more power when wind speeds are low, run more quietly (when turbines stall they shake causing a clattering sound) and are generally more stable producers of power in variable winds.

Given the increased interest in wind turbines as a cleaner source of power, this advance, complements of the humpback whale, may just make them that much more useful.