A new approach for designing small horizontal axis wind turbine blades

Abstract

In recent years the importance of wind energy has been increasing to be one of the most important renewable energy sources. In this study, the blade design of a small 5 kW wind turbine was optimized to obtain an optimal shape in order to increase the power and facilitate the fabrication process. The Betz method and the linearization design method was adopted to design the new shape. Using the blade element momentum theory (BEM), to compare the results of the initial design and linear design. Based on obtained results, it was found that the coefficient of power of the initial design is 0.44 at TSR equal to 6, while the new linear design is 0.47 at TSR equal to 5, meaning that there is an improvement of 6.38%, as the increase in power for the new design appears at lower speeds.