Prototech (Norway)

Abstract A winglet optimization method is developed and tested for a model‐scale wind turbine. The best‐performing winglet shape is obtained by constructing a Kriging surrogate model, which is refined using an infill criterion based on expected improvement. The turbine performance is simulated by solving the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations, and the turbulent flow is predicted using the Spalart‐Allmaras turbulence model. To validate the simulated performance, experiments are performed in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology wind tunnel. According to the simulations, the optimized winglet increases the turbine power and thrust by 7.8% and 6.3%, respectively. The wind tunnel experiments show that the turbine power increases by 8.9%, while the thrust increases by 7.4%. When introducing more turbulence in the wind tunnel to reduce laminar separation, the turbine power and thrust due to the winglet increases by 10.3% and 14.9%, respectively.

Short-term tests showing the influence sulfur has on solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) performance have been performed. The experiments were performed using two single-cell SOFC setups operated at 800 °C. In setup I, sulfur (H2S) was mixed into the fuel gas in concentrations ranging from 20 to 100 ppm. It was found that the performance decreased with increasing sulfur concentration up to 80 ppm. The performance loss at 80 and 100 ppm sulfur was equal. At a current density of 200 mA cm-2, the operating voltage was reduced from 0.810 V at 0 ppm H2S to 0.790 V at 100 ppm H2S, corresponding to an increase in the area-specific cell resistivity (ASR) of 0.10 Ω cm2. In setup II, sulfur levels of 80, 120, and 240 ppm were introduced. In all these three cases the ASR increased by around 0.13 Ω cm2. Removing the sulfur impurity when the 240 ppm H2S exposure test was finished the cell performance fully recovered, indicating no irreversible changes in the cell structure.