Innovative ’biplane’ design could lead to next generation of wind turbines

Biplanes, the fixed-wing aircrafts with two wings, one above the other, exist today mostly in aviation museums, World War I movies and black-and-white photos. But thanks to an innovation by UCLA engineers, that two-wing design could soon be used to make wind turbines that harvest energy more efficiently. Today's giant wind turbines typically use three blades, each of which can be as long as a football field and weigh as much as a Boeing 737. The new UCLA design features blades that are split in two near the rotor but fuse into a single blade about halfway toward each blade's outer end. The advantage? The shape increases the structural strength of these behemoth parts, which could allow for blades that are about 45% lighter than conventional monoplane blades of the same length and materials. A study on the design's effectiveness was published in Renewable Energy, a leading journal on clean energy technologies. "In the big picture, this may change the way we design large wind turbines and help make sustainable wind energy an even more attractive and ubiquitous option as we go away from fossil fuels," said Richard Wirz, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.