Large-scale wind turbine blade design and aerodynamic analysis

Due to the dynamic process of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) caused by turbulence and large rotor inertia, variable-speed wind turbines (VSWTs) cannot maintain the optimal tip speed ratio (TSR) from cut-in wind speed up to the rated speed. Therefore, in order to increase the total captured wind energy, the existing aerodynamic design for VSWT blades, which only focuses on performance improvement at a single TSR, needs to be improved to a multi-point design. In this paper, based on a closed-loop system of VSWTs, including turbulent wind, rotor, drive train and MPPT controller, the distribution of operational TSR and its description based on inflow wind energy are investigated. Moreover, a multi-point method considering the MPPT dynamic process for the aerodynamic optimization of VSWT blades is proposed. In the proposed method, the distribution of operational TSR is obtained through a dynamic simulation of the closed-loop system under a specific turbulent wind, and accordingly the multiple design TSRs and the corresponding weighting coefficients in the objective function are determined. Finally, using the blade of a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 1.5 MW wind turbine as the baseline, the proposed method is compared with the conventional single-point optimization method using the commercial software Bladed. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Section: Design Variables and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multi-Point Method Considering the Maximum Power Point Tracking Dynamic Process for Aerodynamic Optimization of Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Blades

Yang

Zhang

et al. 2016

“…With the world's ever-increasing energy demands in the presence of continuous fossil fuel shortage and environmental pollution, various renewable energy sources are currently being investigated [1][2][3][4]. Wind energy has been widely accepted because of its great advantages, such as inexhaustibility and environmental friendliness [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, only a limited number of papers [2,[14][15][16][17][18] are focused on the optimization for this purpose. Most of the works among these papers either taken a single objective function in the problem or used beam models to calculate the structural behaviors, the material layup was not discussed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Objective Aerodynamic and Structural Optimization of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Blades

Zhu

Cai

2017

Abstract:A procedure based on MATLAB combined with ANSYS is presented and utilized for the multi-objective aerodynamic and structural optimization of horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) blades. In order to minimize the cost of energy (COE) and improve the overall performance of the blades, materials of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) combined with glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) are applied. The maximum annual energy production (AEP), the minimum blade mass and the minimum blade cost are taken as three objectives. Main aerodynamic and structural characteristics of the blades are employed as design variables. Various design requirements including strain, deflection, vibration and buckling limits are taken into account as constraints. To evaluate the aerodynamic performances and the structural behaviors, the blade element momentum (BEM) theory and the finite element method (FEM) are applied in the procedure. Moreover, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) II, which constitutes the core of the procedure, is adapted for the multi-objective optimization of the blades. To prove the efficiency and reliability of the procedure, a commercial 1.5 MW HAWT blade is used as a case study, and a set of trade-off solutions is obtained. Compared with the original scheme, the optimization results show great improvements for the overall performance of the blade.

“…Wang [13,14] applied a novel multi-objective optimization algorithm for the design of wind turbine blades by employing the minimum blade mass and the maximum power coefficient, the maximum AEP and minimum blade mass as the optimization objectives, respectively. However, the blades are treated as beam models to calculate the structural performances in the above research, and the material layups were not considered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamic and Structural Integrated Optimization Design of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Blades

Zhu

Cai

2016

Abstract:A procedure based on MATLAB combined with ANSYS is presented and utilized for the aerodynamic and structural integrated optimization design of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) blades. Three modules are used for this purpose: an aerodynamic analysis module using the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory, a structural analysis module employing the Finite Element Method (FEM) and a multi-objective optimization module utilizing the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. The former two provide a sufficiently accurate solution of the aerodynamic and structural performances of the blade; the latter handles the design variables of the optimization problem, namely, the main geometrical shape and structural parameters of the blade, and promotes function optimization. The scope of the procedure is to achieve the best trade-off performances between the maximum Annual Energy Production (AEP) and the minimum blade mass under various design requirements. To prove the efficiency and reliability of the procedure, a commercial 1.5 megawatt (MW) HAWT blade is used as a case study. Compared with the original scheme, the optimization results show great improvements for the overall performance of the blade.