Improved aerodynamic optimization for the design of wind turbine blades

Abstract

A wind turbine rotor converts the kinetic energy of wind to drive a generator which in turn yields electricity. The aerodynamic analysis and the optimization of design parameters for the wind turbine blades are key techniques in the early stage of the development of wind turbine blades. In this study a computational procedure using artificial neural network and numerical optimization techniques was developed for three-dimensional blades design of a wind turbine. The procedure was applied for improving a previously studied wind turbine rotor design. Results showed that the aerodynamic performance of the new blade has remarkable improvement after optimization.