Design and verification of airfoil families for large-size wind turbine blades

Abstract

Abstract:

For the design of wind turbine blades, the use of a family of specially tailored airfoils is particularly important. The dedicated airfoils can dramatically improve the capability of capturing wind power, reduce the structural weight to save the cost of manufacturing and transportation, and lower the inertial loads as well as the loads due to gust. An overview of the world-wide wind turbine airfoil families developed since 1990's is presented, such as the S series, the DU series, the Risø series, and the FFA series. The design and wind-tunnel tests of the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) airfoil family for megawatt-size wind turbines, called the NPU-WA series, are summarized. All tests for the NPU-WA series are carried out in the NF-3 low-speed wind-tunnel with a two-dimensional (2D) test section of 1.6m×0.8m and at the Reynolds number ranging from 1.6×10⁶ to 5×10⁶. The research activities for further improving the NPU-WA airfoils towards lower roughness sensitivity are also reviewed. The development of the new NPUWA series dedicated for multi-megawatt wind turbines is discussed.

Key words: wind turbine, airfoil design, windtunnel experiment, wind energy, NPU-WA airfoil family

2010 MSC Number:

TK83
O355

Zhonghua HAN, Wenping SONG, Yongwei GAO, Jing CHEN. Design and verification of airfoil families for large-size wind turbine blades. Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (English Edition), 2016, 37(S1): 67-84.

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