Computational method for the design of wind turbine blades

ALEJANDRO. J. VITALE; ANDREA P. ROSSI

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY

Elsevier

Año: 2008 vol. 33 p. 3466 - 3470

Zeus Disen˜ ador was developed to design low-power, horizontal-axis wind turbine blades,by means of an iterative algorithm. With this software, it is possible to obtain the optimumblade shape for a wind turbine to satisfy energy requirements of an electric system withoptimum rotor efficiency. The number of blades, the airfoil curves and the average windvelocity can be specified by the user. The user can also request particular edge conditionsfor the width of the blades and for the pitch angle. Results are provided in differentwindows. Two- and three-dimensional graphics show the aspect of the resultant blade.Numerical results are displayed for blade length, blade surface, pitch angle variationalong the blade span, rotor angular speed, rotor efficiency and rotor output power.Software verifications were made by comparing rotor power and rotor efficiency fordifferent designs. Results were similar to those provided by commercial wind generatormanufacturers.