Abstract
A new airfoil family, called NPU-MWA (Northwestern Polytechnical University Multi-megawatt Wind-turbine A-series) airfoils, was designed to improve both aerodynamic and structural performance, with the outboard airfoils being designed at high design lift coefficient and high Reynolds number, and the inboard airfoils being designed as flat-back airfoils. This article aims to design a multi-megawatt wind turbine blade in order to demonstrate the advantages of the NPU-MWA airfoils in improving wind energy capturing and structural weight reduction. The distributions of chord length and twist angle for a 5 MW wind turbine blade are optimized by a Kriging surrogate model-based optimizer, with aerodynamic performance being evaluated by blade element-momentum theory. The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations solver was used to validate the improvement in aerodynamic performance. Results show that compared with an existing NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5 MW blade, the maximum power coefficient of the optimized NPU 5 MW blade is larger, and the chord lengths at all span-wise sections are dramatically smaller, resulting in a significant structural weight reduction (9%). It is shown that the NPU-MWA airfoils feature excellent aerodynamic and structural performance for the design of multi-megawatt wind turbine blades.
Highlights
Among the types of renewable energies, wind energy has the advantages of large reserves, cleanliness, low exploitation cost, and high reliability
NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5 MW blade, the maximum power coefficient of the optimized NPU 5 MW blade is larger, and the chord lengths at all span-wise sections are dramatically smaller, resulting in a significant structural weight reduction (9%)
Supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863” Program) of China, a new airfoil family, named NPU-MWA airfoils, for multi-megawatt wind turbine blades was designed by Han et al [13,14], and the invention patent of China [25] has been authorized
Summary
Among the types of renewable energies, wind energy has the advantages of large reserves, cleanliness, low exploitation cost, and high reliability. Supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863” Program) of China, a new airfoil family, named NPU-MWA airfoils, for multi-megawatt wind turbine blades was designed by Han et al [13,14], and the invention patent of China [25] has been authorized. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the advantages of the newly developed NPU-MWA airfoils in improving wind energy capturing and structural weight reduction, by carrying out an aerodynamic optimization design of 5 MW wind turbine blades.
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