Three-dimensional modeling of a horizontal axis wind turbine blade and profile effect analysis

The rotor dimensioning of a wind turbine is essentially based on aerodynamic theory to define the parameters affecting its overall performance. The blade element momentum theory (BEM) has been widely used as a tool for the design of wind turbine blade. An existing airfoil shape with known chord and twist can be input to BEM to calculate the efficiency. On the other hand, if we set airfoil as unknown variable, we can search for optimum efficiency. The aim of our work is to optimize the performance of wind turbine rotors by comparing the influence of different profiles on a wind turbine energy and stress distribution for a given wind distribution.