Abstract:

Most traditional methods for optimizing the blade design have no consideration on the aerofoils of cross-section, which makes the blade design difficult to achieve the optimal solution. To solve this problem, this paper proposed an optimal design method for wind turbine blades considering different cross-section aerofoils. The proposed method took cross-section aerofoils, chord length and torsion angle as design variables, takeing relative thickness and relative camber constraints into consideration and aimed at maximizing annual energy production. Genetic algorithm model for optimizing the design parameters of blades was established. Taking a 1.5 MW wind turbine as example, the proposed design method was verified. The results show that the power coefficient of the optimized blade has been significantly improved by considering the cross-section aerofoils; the power coefficient of wind turbine can be maintained around the optimal value, which makes it easier to control the wind turbine to tracking the power curve and capture the maximum wind energy; and also the annual energy production is increased. At the same time, taking relative thickness and relative camber constraints into consideration makes the method closer to the actual engineering application.

Key words: wind turbines, aerofoil, blade design, genetic algorithm