Free-form design of rotor blades

Abstract

This work investigates an integrated free-form approach for the design of rotor blades, where airfoil shapes are treated as unknowns. This leads to the simultaneous optimization of the chord, twist and structural design variables, together with the airfoil shapes along the blade. As airfoils are automatically tailored to the evolution of the blade, this process results in a better exploration of the solution space and relieves the user from the burden of up-front choices, leading to better final designs. The proposed approach is demonstrated by sizing a 2 MW wind turbine blade. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.