BLADE DESIGN PROCEDURE

1.

Determine the rotor diameter require from site condition.

P C P
Where ;

1
R 3V 3
2

P is the power output.

is the expected coefficient of C P performance (0.4 for modern three bladed
wind turbine).
is the expected electrical and mechanical efficiency (0.9 would be a
suitable

value).

R is the tip radius.

V is the expected wind velocity.
2.

Choose a tip speed ratio for the machine. For water pumping take 1<<3 (which
gives a high torque) and for electrical power generation take 4<<10.

3.

Choose, a number of blades B , which is based on practical experience.

4.

Select an airfoil. For <3 curved plates can be used rather than an airfoil shape.

5.

Obtain and examine lift and drag coefficient curves for the airfoil choosed . Note
That different airfoils may be used at different spans of the blade, a thick airfoil may
be used at different spans of the blade, a thick airfoil may be selected for hub to give
greater strength.

6.

Choose the design aerodynamic condition for each airfoil. Typically select 80% of the
maximum lift value, this choice effectively fixes the blade twist. On long blades a very
large degree of twist is required to obtain 80% of the maximum lift near the hub.
not necessarily desirable as the hub produces only a small amount of power

This is

output , a

compromise is to accept that the airfoil will have very large angles of attack at hub.
7.

Choose a chord distribution of the airfoil. There is no easily physical accessible way

of

doing this but a simplification of an ideal blade is given by

8r cos
3Br

This gives a moderately complex shape and a linear distribution of chord may be
considered easier to make.
8.

Divide the blade into N elements. Typically 10 to 20 elements would be used.

9.

As a first guess for the flow solution use the following equations. These are based on
ideal blade shape derived with the wake rotation, zero drag and tip losses. Note

an

that

these equations provide an initial guess only. The equations are given as follows:
1
2

900 tan 1
3
r
4 cos 2
a 1 '
C L sin

a'

1 3a
4a 1

10. Calculate rotor performance and then modify the design as necessary. This is an
iterative process.

A typical experience shows the relation between TSR and number of blades(B).

8-24

6-12

3-6

3- 4

More than 4

1- 3