The original PROP code developed by AeroVironment, Inc. and its various versions have been in use for wind turbine performance predictions for over ten years. Due to its simplicity, rapid execution times and relatively accurate predictions, it has become and industry standard in the US. The Europeans have similar blade-element/momentum methods inuse for design. Over the years, PROP has continued to be improved (in its accuracy and capability), e.g., PROPSH, PROPPC, PROP93, and PropID. The latter version incorporates a unique invese design capability that allows the user to specify the desired aerodynamic characteristics from which the corresponding blade geometry is determined. Through this approach, tedious efforts related to manually adjusting the chord, twist, ptich and rpm to achieve desired aerodynamic/performance characteristics can be avoided, thereby makign it possible to perform more extensive trade studies in an effort to optimize performance. Past versions of PropID did not have supporting graphics software. The more current version to be discussed includes a matlab-based graphical user interface (GUI) and additional features that will be discussed in this paper.
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