Parametric geometrical modelling of wind turbine Blades & Hub.

Abstract

Wind turbine industry has substantially grown in last decades and is still becoming larger. Hence, effective ways to design wind turbines are needed. In this report, the procedure of parametric design of a wind turbine blade is presented. This is performed with the help of Grasshopper®, an application embedded into Rhinoceros 3D graphical design software. The process involves parametric construction of airfoil sections along the wind turbine blade. The geometry is modeled by taking advantage of Bezier curves, since they can be used to build nonlinear high curvature contours. Main feature curves in an airfoil are the camber, upper and lower sides, which are defined by a set of appropriately selected parameters. The generation of multiple airfoil sections enables us to construct a complete 3D shape with help of the lofting feature in Rhinoceros environment. Results can be further utilized for static or dynamic analysis. The aim of the project is to develop an algorithm that enables us to reconstruct any available wind turbine blade with maximum precision and to establish a verified solution method by reproducing published data for NACA 4412 in the subsonic flow regime. The blade design is described in detail in this report and all the stages are presented with appropriate illustrations.