An airfoil optimization technique for wind turbines

Ribeiro, Andrea; Awruch, Armando Miguel; Gomes, Herbert Martins

doi:10.1016/j.apm.2011.12.026

Cited by 120 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…One approach adopted to incorporate high‐fidelity simulations into wind turbine design is to use two‐dimensional Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) CFD solvers to optimize wind turbine airfoils, neglecting 3D effects . Another effort considered 3D CFD to optimize turbine blade winglets with respect to two design variables .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One approach adopted to incorporate high-fidelity simulations into wind turbine design is to use two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) CFD solvers to optimize wind turbine airfoils, neglecting 3D effects. 28,29 Another effort considered 3D CFD to optimize turbine blade winglets with respect to two design variables. 30 However, CFD-based aerodynamic shape optimization for wind turbine blades has not yet been done because of the compounding challenges of high cost simulations and large numbers of shape design variables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aerodynamic shape optimization of wind turbine blades using a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model and an adjoint method

2016

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Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is increasingly used to analyze wind turbines, and the next logical step is to develop CFD‐based optimization to enable further gains in performance and reduce model uncertainties. We present an aerodynamic shape optimization framework consisting of a Reynolds‐averaged Navier Stokes solver coupled to a numerical optimization algorithm, a geometry modeler, and a mesh perturbation algorithm. To efficiently handle the large number of design variables, we use a gradient‐based optimization technique together with an adjoint method for computing the gradients of the torque coefficient with respect to the design variables. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we maximize the torque of the NREL VI wind turbine blade with respect to pitch, twist, and airfoil shape design variables while constraining the blade thickness. We present a series of optimization cases with increasing number of variables, both for a single wind speed and for multiple wind speeds. For the optimization at a single wind speed performed with respect to all the design variables (1 pitch, 11 twist, and 240 airfoil shape variables), the torque coefficient increased by 22.4% relative to the NREL VI design. For the multiple‐speed optimization, the torque increased by an average of 22.1%. Depending on the CFD mesh size and number of design variables, the optimization time ranges from 2 to 24h when using 256 cores, which means that wind turbine designers can use this process routinely. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamic shape optimization of wind turbine blades using a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model and an adjoint method

2016

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“…With the development of wind turbine airfoils, Bjork，Soemarwoto，Habali，Nielsen，Baker, Bermudez and A.F.P.Ribeiro [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] have also made other significant contributions to this field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new direct design method of wind turbine airfoils and wind tunnel experiment

Chen

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2016

Applied Mathematical Modelling

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A general parametric representation function (Shape Function) for wind turbine-dedicated airfoils based on Taylor high-order polynomial series is presented for the first time. The design space and shape control function of the airfoil have been studied. The objective of the high-performance WT (Wind Turbine) airfoils was to maximise the lift/drag ratio at the design angle of attack both in free and fixed transitions. The optimised mathematical model of the airfoils is built combing genetic algorithm and the flow solver RFOIL. The new airfoil family (ranging in thickness from 15% to 20%) with target characteristics were designed for variable-speed operation with pitch control of large megawatt-sized rotors. Wind tunnel experiments for the WT180 airfoil were carried out for both clean and rough conditions. The experimental results for the lift and drag coefficients agree well with the RFOIL predictions. The testing verified the high lift/drag ratio and the high maximum lift coefficient for the WT180 airfoil. The results indicate that this novel design method is feasible to optimise wind turbine airfoils.

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“…Surrogate models have been used with CFD simulations to achieve optimal designs and an overall reduction in computation time has been achieved [5], [6]. Traditionally these surrogates are constructed by inputting a limited number of training values, corresponding to specific choices of design parameters (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-objective evolutionary recurrent neural network ensemble for prediction of computational fluid dynamic simulations

Smith

Doherty

Jin

2014

2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC)

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Using a surrogate model to evaluate the expensive fitness of candidate solutions in an evolutionary algorithm can significantly reduce the overall computational cost of optimization tasks. In this paper we present a recurrent neural network ensemble that is used as a surrogate for the long-term prediction of computational fluid dynamic simulations.A hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm that trains and optimizes the structure of the recurrent neural networks is introduced. Selection and combination of individual prediction models in the Pareto set of solutions is used to create the ensemble of predictors. Five selection methods are tested on six data sets and the accuracy of the ensembles is compared to the converged computational fluid dynamic data, as well as to the delta change between two flow conditions. Intermediate computational fluid dynamic data is used for training and the method presented can produce accurate and stable results using a third of the intermediate data needed for convergence.

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An airfoil optimization technique for wind turbines

Cited by 120 publications

References 31 publications

Aerodynamic shape optimization of wind turbine blades using a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model and an adjoint method

Aerodynamic shape optimization of wind turbine blades using a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model and an adjoint method

A new direct design method of wind turbine airfoils and wind tunnel experiment

Multi-objective evolutionary recurrent neural network ensemble for prediction of computational fluid dynamic simulations

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