Case Study: Vortex Bladeless achieves faster, lower-cost design validation of bladeless wind turbines with Altair

A Unique Design Enables Bladeless Wind Turbines to Harness Energy

Vortex Bladeless, a Spanish company developing a cylindrical, bladeless wind generator that captures energy from vortex-induced vibrations, needed to validate aerodynamic behavior and speed up development while cutting prototype costs. They partnered with Altair, using Altair’s AcuSolve CFD, OptiStruct structural optimization and HyperWorks Virtual Wind Tunnel tools and engineering support.

Altair ran fluid–structure interaction simulations and optimizations that confirmed vortex-shedding resonance, improved geometry and alternator design, and enabled virtual iteration instead of many physical prototypes; the new geometry captures nearly 40% of wind kinetic energy and the alternator achieves about 70–85% of the conversion efficiency of conventional rotary units. As a result, Vortex Bladeless reported much faster, lower‑cost development with expected manufacturing cost reductions of 53%, operating costs down 51% and maintenance cuts of ~80%, and a product roadmap from 100 W units to planned 4 kW and 1 MW versions.

Vortex Bladeless

David Yanez

Co-Chief Executive Officer of Technology