Optimization And Analysis Of Chord Length And Pitch Angle Of Wind Turbine Blade

With the massive usage of fossil fuel,the global carbon dioxide emissions are increasing not only intensifying the greenhouse effect but also speaks as call for new energy sources.Among the new,clean,and inexhaustible clean resource,wind energy is gradually being taken seriously.The wind turbines are important devices for capturing wind energy and converting it into electrical energy.The blades of a wind turbine is the vital part,composed of airfoil(s)sections in the span.The chord length and twist angle of each section plays an important role in the performance of the blade and the values of chord length and twist angle are determined by the ratio of coefficient of lift and coefficient of drag.Therefore,finding the right ratio is a must for optmizal performance of the wind turbine.In early days the primary focus of CFD applications was limited to analysis only.However,in modern research industry,it has also become a tool for optimization.This has been the virtue of high-performance computing platform and advancement in algorithms for optimization and analysis.The focus of this study is to observe the effects of friction over the wind turbine blades and how the output of the wind turbine can be improved.In this study,the factor of frictional forces exerted over a wind turbine blade is used to obtain the correct values of chord and twist to enhance the overall output of the wind turbine.A preliminary blade consisting of 4 different NACA airfoils is designed using Gluaert Method and simulated to obtain the baseline data.The obtained chord lengths and twist angles are set as input parameters,whereas frictional forces acting is set as objective outcome parameters for the optimization using Single Objective Optimization method.Scatter plots and Pareto front are being used to determine the optimum candidate chord and twist for the optimized blade geometry.The design of the domain is mostly reduced,and only 05 points along the blade chord are selected to find global optimum results due to computational limitations.The wind velocities of 08 m/s,10 m/s,12m/s,14 m/s and 16 m/s are used to compare the results of both preliminary baled model and optimized bladed model;and also to present the flow and pressure visualization.The widely recognized and commercially available ANSYS 16.0 is used for the simulation purposes.