EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE OF HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINE BLADES BASED ON OPTIMAL ROTOR THEORY

Wind energy is a very popular renewable energy resource. In order to increase the use of wind energy, it is important to develop wind turbine rotor with high rotations rates and power coefficient. In this paper, a method for the determination of the aerodynamic performance characteristics using NACA airfoils is given for three bladed horizontal axis wind turbine. Blade geometry is obtained from the best approximation of the calculated theoretical optimum chord and twist distribution of the rotating blade. Optimal rotor theory is used, which is simple enough and accurate enough for rotor design. In this work, eight different airfoils are used to investigate the changes in performance of the blade. Rotor diameter taken is 82 m which is the diameter of VESTAS V82-1.65MW. The airfoils taken are same from root to tip in every blade. The design lift coefficient taken is 1.1. A computer program is generated to automate the complete procedure.