Multidisciplinary Design and Verification of the HB Flatback Airfoil Family

Abstract

This paper presents the design, multidisciplinary optimization, and verification of 6 different flatback airfoils with different maximum thickness ranging from 35 to 50% with various trailing edge gap using 2D flow conditions for large multi-megawatt wind turbine blades. Because the design of the airfoil sections is a multidisciplinary field, involving several aerodynamic and structural parameters, the Simulated Annealing algorithm was used to design the optimized shape of the flatback airfoil sections. Computational fluid dynamics calculations in the optimization process were performed using the commercial Fluent code. The design Reynolds number was and the optimized airfoil sections have 35, 40, 45, and 50% maximum thickness with a trailing edge gap ranging from 12.5 up to 20.0%. The wind tunnel test was performed on the HB-FB-350-150 airfoil at a Reynolds number of . The results show that the optimized flatback airfoils have several benefits compared with currently applied flatback airfoils. The results for these new optimized flatback airfoils are mainly a higher lift coefficient, higher stall angle of attack, higher sectional moment of inertia, and lower sensitivity to leading edge roughness compared with the current flatback airfoils.