Optimization of wind turbine rotors

摘要

A computer program for aerodynamic optimization of wind turbine rotors has been written in Fortran with the purpose to maximize the annual energy production. The constraints is the maximum power output from the turbine and maximum and minimum values on the design variables. The design of the rotor is described by the chord- and twist distribution. The chord- and twist distributions are described with Bezier splines which, with a few number of control points, are very flexible. The Bezier control points are the design variables which are optimized by the optimization program. The optimization method used in the program is the Method of Moving Asymptotes, MMA, suggested by Krister Svanberg at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. MMA is a stable method and it seems suitable for this application. It is also in general easy to implement constraints. It seems like there are many local maximum points and the variations in the annual energy production between the total maximum points are very small, so there are many solutions to choose between and finding the global maximum point can be a problem. The problem could possibly be avoided with smaller wind steps near the rated wind. In future versions of the optimization program the Reynolds number dependents of the aerodynamic coefficients should be taken into consideration. Constraints for the thrust and the aerodynamic noise should also be implemented in the program.