IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0141848.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of Reynolds Number on Multi-Objective Aerodynamic Design of a Wind Turbine Blade

Author

Listed:
  • Mingwei Ge
  • Le Fang
  • De Tian

Abstract

At present, the radius of wind turbine rotors ranges from several meters to one hundred meters, or even more, which extends Reynolds number of the airfoil profile from the order of 105 to 107. Taking the blade for 3MW wind turbines as an example, the influence of Reynolds number on the aerodynamic design of a wind turbine blade is studied. To make the study more general, two kinds of multi-objective optimization are involved: one is based on the maximum power coefficient (CPopt) and the ultimate load, and the other is based on the ultimate load and the annual energy production (AEP). It is found that under the same configuration, the optimal design has a larger CPopt or AEP (CPopt//AEP) for the same ultimate load, or a smaller load for the same CPopt//AEP at higher Reynolds number. At a certain tip-speed ratio or ultimate load, the blade operating at higher Reynolds number should have a larger chord length and twist angle for the maximum Cpopt//AEP. If a wind turbine blade is designed by using an airfoil database with a mismatched Reynolds number from the actual one, both the load and Cpopt//AEP will be incorrectly estimated to some extent. In some cases, the assessment error attributed to Reynolds number is quite significant, which may bring unexpected risks to the earnings and safety of a wind power project.

Suggested Citation

  • Mingwei Ge & Le Fang & De Tian, 2015. "Influence of Reynolds Number on Multi-Objective Aerodynamic Design of a Wind Turbine Blade," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0141848
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141848
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141848&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0141848?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0141848. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.