University of Twente / Saw teeth make wind turbines quieter

University of Twente / Saw teeth make wind turbines quieter

25 September 2009 at 21:46

Placing saw teeth on the blades of wind turbines is now possible. The saw teeth are designed by Stefan Oerlemans of the University of Twente and the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR).

Rotating wind turbine blades make a characteristic whooshing sound. This noise often annoys those living nearby, so wind turbines are not always operating at full capacity and plans for new wind turbines are frequently rejected.

Stefan Oerlemans, PhD candidate at the Twente of University and employee of the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), researched the sounds caused by wind turbines and created a solution to halve the noise without loss of energy.

To achieve noise reduction, saw teeth were placed on the back edge of the outer quarter of the blades (see figure).

University of Twente