Abstract
A detailed review of the current state-of-art for wind turbine blade design is presented, including theoretical maximum efficiency, propulsion, practical efficiency, HAWT blade design, and blade loads. The review provides a complete picture of wind turbine blade design and shows the dominance of modern turbines almost exclusive use of horizontal axis rotors. The aerodynamic design principles for a modern wind turbine blade are detailed, including blade plan shape/quantity, aerofoil selection and optimal attack angles. A detailed review of design loads on wind turbine blades is offered, describing aerodynamic, gravitational, centrifugal, gyroscopic and operational conditions.
Highlights
Power has been extracted from the wind over hundreds of years with historic designs, known as windmills, constructed from wood, cloth and stone for the purpose of pumping water or grinding corn.Historic designs, typically large, heavy and inefficient, were replaced in the 19th century by fossil fuel engines and the implementation of a nationally distributed power network
Most importantly for wind turbine rotors, aerodynamic lift can be generated at a narrow corridor of varying angles normal to the wind direction
The ideal plan form of a HAWT rotor blade is defined using the blade element momentum (BEM) method by calculating the chord length according to Betz limit, local air velocities and aerofoil lift
Summary
Power has been extracted from the wind over hundreds of years with historic designs, known as windmills, constructed from wood, cloth and stone for the purpose of pumping water or grinding corn. Energies 2012, 5 axis wind turbine or (HAWT). A vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) has its shaft normal to the ground (Figure 1). The discontinued mainstream development of the VAWT can be attributed to a low tip speed ratio and difficulty in controlling rotor speed. The VAWT requires no additional mechanism to face the wind and heavy generator equipment can be mounted on the ground, reducing tower loads. A novel V-shaped VAWT rotor design is currently under investigation which exploits these favourable attributes [3]. This design is currently unproven on a megawatt scale, requiring several years of development before it can be considered competitive. The HAWT has emerged as the dominant design configuration, capitalised by all of today’s leading large scale turbine manufacturers
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