Aerodynamic shape optimization of non-straight small wind turbine blades

• The small wind turbine blade was optimized with non-straight shape.
• Lifting surface method with free wake was used for aerodyanmic performace evaluation.
• The non-straight shape can be used to increase energy production and decrease the thrust.
• The energy production should be sacrificed in order to increase the starting behavior.

Small wind turbines usually operate in sub-optimal wind conditions in order to satisfy the demand where it is needed. The aerodynamic performance of small horizontal axis wind turbines highly depends on the geometry. In the present study, the geometry of wind turbine blades are optimized not only in terms of the distribution of the chord and twist angle but also with 3-dimensional stacking line. As the blade with 3-dimensional stacking line is given sweep in the plan of rotation and dihedral in the plan containing the blade and rotor axis, the common used blade element momentum method can no longer provide accurate aerodynamic performance solution. A lifting surface method with free wake model is used as the aerodynamic model in the present work. The annual energy production and the starting performance are selected as optimization objective. The starting performance is evaluated based on blade element method. The optimization of the geometry of the non-straight wind turbine blades is carried out by using a micro-genetic algorithm. Results show that the wind turbine blades with properly designed 3-dimensional stacking line can increase the annual energy production and have a better starting behavior compared with 2-dimensional-optimized blade geometries.

Small wind turbine blades with 3D stacking lines (sweep and bend) have been considered and analyzed with an optimization code based on the lifting surface method. The results indicated that the power capture and the rotor thrust can be improved with these more complex geometries. The starting behavior of the small wind turbines can be improved by the optimization of the blade chord and twist angle distribution.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide