Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

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Original article

Genetic algorithms for the design and optimization of horizontal axis wind
turbine (HAWT) blades: A continuous approach or a binary one?
Abolfazl Pourrajabian *, Maziar Dehghan , Saeed Rahgozar
Department of Energy, Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), 14155-4777 Tehran, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The continuous and the binary techniques are the main types of genetic algorithms that could be employed for an
Wind turbine optimization problem. The study investigates the robustness and accuracy of each technique for the wind turbine
Blade blades design and optimization problem. For that purpose, the geometry of the blade was designed for the
Optimization
maximization of the output power, the desirable goal of the blade design. The design variables consist of the
Continuous genetic algorithm
distribution of the chord and twist along the blade. Results indicate that the continuous genetic algorithm
Binary genetic algorithm
outperforms the binary one from the standpoint of the accuracy and also the computational time. However, the
use of uniform crossover could improve the convergence rate of the binary genetic algorithm. Moreover, the
sensitivity analysis of the applied genetic algorithms with respect to the population size and the mutation rate
was performed to find the appropriate values for those parameters. The outcomes emphasized that adopting a
small number of population size together with a large number of generations could speed up the convergence
rate of the problem. Also approved in the study was the efficiency of the so-called “Superblade” operator which
improved the convergence rate of the algorithm and resulted in the powerful blades.

Introduction The aerodynamics of wind turbines blades has a noticeable role in

The global warming, one of the main issues of the current era, could
be effectively tackled by replacing fossil fuels with renewable and sus­
tainable energies [1]. Of those energies, wind energy has a considerable
role. The installed capacity of wind turbines has risen significantly over
the past decade thanks to the efforts of conservationists and decision-
makers who pave the way for promoting the use of these green sour­
ces throughout the world [2]. Among renewable energies, wind is
deemed a very sustainable source as the contribution of the emitted CO2
during the life cycle of wind turbines is very small [3,4]. Interestingly,
this free source of energy is now becoming financially sustainable in
some parts of the world, implying that government subsidies could be
removed in a near future [5]. The improved technology and efficiency of
wind turbines, which are continuously pursued by researchers, are the
main reasons for those advances and developments. In this regard, the
present study aims at finding a computationally efficient type of the
genetic algorithms technique for the design and optimization of wind
turbine blades; one of the ongoing research topics in the wind energy-
based power generation systems including horizontal axis wind tur­
bines [6–8] and also vertical ones [9,10].
harnessing the kinetic energy of the wind and also the annual energy
production. This brings about researchers to pay more attention to the
design and optimization of wind turbines blades [11]. Fig. 1 shows the
wind turbine blade shape and its parameters including the blade profile
(airfoil), distribution of the chord and also the distribution of the twist
angle-the angle between the plane of rotation and the chord line.
Generally, these parameters are determined through an optimization
study where a single goal or a combination of objectives should be met.
Such goals are the maximization of the output power [12] minimization
of the blade cost and mass [13] minimization of the starting time [14]
and also the minimization of the generated aerodynamic noise [15].
Of those parameters shown in Fig. 1, the airfoil is generally selected
before the optimization procedure especially for small horizontal axis
wind turbines whose output power is less than 50 kW [11]. For large
wind turbines, a group of airfoils is selected from a databank through an
optimization procedure. Generally, the thicker airfoils are employed at
the root part to withstand bending moments and structural stresses
while the thinner ones are adopted near the blades tip to generate more
aerodynamic torque and thus harnessing more kinetic energy [11]. For
small turbines, however, a same airfoil is selected along the blade to bring

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: a.pourrajabian@merc.ac.ir (A. Pourrajabian).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101022
Received 17 September 2020; Received in revised form 16 December 2020; Accepted 11 January 2021
Available online 3 February 2021
2213-1388/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A. Pourrajabian et al.
Fig. 1. The schematic of the wind turbine blade and its parameters.
down the total cost, making them competitive with other renewable
sources especially solar PVs whose costs have been dramatically reduced
in the past decade [16]. So, irrespective of small or large wind turbines,
the design and optimization of blades is mainly led to finding the dis­
tributions of the chord and twist along the blades [11,17].
In order to solve the wind turbine blade design problem, the nu­
merical techniques should be adopted as the analytical method could
not be used because of the presence of numerous variables, nonlinear
constraints and also conflicting objectives [18]. For that purpose,
gradient-based algorithms such as the adjoint method [19–21] non-
gradient ones such as evolutionary optimization techniques [22–27]
and also a hybrid of them [18,28] have been used.
The gradient-based optimization techniques are suitable for
“exploitation” where the local search is required. The non-gradient
optimization techniques, on the other hand, are more suitable for the
“exploration” where the global search is needed. Although gradient
techniques are deemed to be better than non-gradient methods, the final
solution may be a local optimum rather than the global one. This issue
could be addressed by the non-gradient optimization techniques but
they are inherently time-consuming due to the exploration of the whole
solution space.
A hybrid scheme has been proposed to address those issues of
gradient and non-gradient techniques [18]. To that end, the optimiza­
tion procedure is started with the non-gradient technique to find the
region and initial data set of the solution. Then, the local gradient
optimizer method is called to find the final and optimal solution.
Although this strategy seems to be an effective way, the study of Ses­
sarego [29] has indicated that this hybridization technique is not fruitful
for the design and optimization of wind turbine blades as no improve­
ment in convergence rate of the applied method was achieved. This
implies the fact that the performance of an optimization scheme that
could solve a set of problems could not necessarily be employed for the
solution of other optimization problems with different natures.
The present study aims at finding an efficient GA to determine the
optimum geometry of wind turbine blades. The binary GA (BGA) has
been used for the wind turbine blades design [12,14]. However, for the
problems that consist of real and floating-point variables, it is more
natural to use the continuous GA (CGA) technique [30]. The suitability
of each approach depends on the problem in question [30]. This study
will employ both approaches to find the features of them, determining
which one is more suitable for the design and optimization of horizontal
axis wind turbine blades. This will be investigated from the aspects of
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022
the convergence rate and also the computational time. Moreover, the
effect of GA input parameters values, the population size and the mu­
tation rate, on the convergence rate of both algorithms will be fully
investigated. This analysis would be of paramount importance as an
efficient and robust GA could reduce the number of objective function
evaluations, making it a less computationally expensive algorithm.
The study begins with the concepts of binary and real-coded GAs.
Thereafter, the way of the objective function calculation is introduced
and then followed by results, discussion and conclusions.
Genetic algorithms (GAs)
Mimicking the natural evolution, GA is one of the evolutionary
optimization techniques that is generally employed in a binary form or a
continuous (real-coded) one to solve many engineering problems
[31,32]. Each one has its own pros and cons. Contrary to the real-coded
GA, the binary type could handle not only the continuous space but also
the discrete one. Such a related example is finding the optimal layout of
wind farms where the binary type is the most pertinent choice [33].
The procedure of GAs is based on three operators: selection, crossover
and mutation. After random generation of the population matrix which
consists of the candidate solutions or design variables (here blades), the
best ones are selected according to their fitness values. These solutions
known as “parents” produce children (here blades) via the crossover
operator. To maintain the genetic diversity, the mutation operator is
finally employed to avoid algorithm converging to local optima. In a
completely random scheme, this operator replaces the variable(s) along
a chromosome with random value(s). The GA cycle is repeated through a
number of generations until a stopping criterion is met; Fig. 2. Except the
decoding chromosomes which is the essential part of the binary GA, all
steps are similar for both GA schemes [30].
It is worth noting that elitism is not generally considered as an
operator in the canonical GA. However, it is deemed a robust and
effective operator as it leads the optimization procedure towards the
optimal solution [30]. To that end, this operator stops the best solutions
being mutated (Fig. 2). This way, the best solutions of each generation
would pass to the next, unaltered. Over the course of algorithm and
through a large number of generations, the traits of these solutions
would transfer to their offspring, increasing the chance of producing
new solutions whose fitness function values might be better than their
parents.
The selection method used in the present study was the well-known
Rolette wheel technique by which the top chromosomes in the popula­
tion matrix have more chance to become parents and produce children
via crossover operator [30]. For the binary GA, the single point cross­
over is straightforward as a random number is selected along the two
chromosomes (parents) and the bits surrounding that point are
exchanged to produce new offspring. The procedure for the two-point
crossover which has an advantage over the single one is also similar.
For the continuous GA, however, the procedure is a little bit different.
Fig. 3 shows how the single point crossover is performed. Note that β (0
< β less than 1) is a random number and Nvar is the number of design
(decision) variables [30].
The following subsections detail the applied objective function and
the input parameters for the optimization.
Objective function
As the main and desirable goal, the maximization of the power co­
efficient (CP) was considered for the objective function. The blade-
element momentum (BEM) theory, the commonly used method for the
simulation of wind turbine blades and also propellers [11,34] was
employed for the calculation of CP. The comparison of BEM outcomes
with the field-test and experimental data has shown the accuracy of this
theory [35,36].
In BEM, the continuity and momentum equations are simultaneously
A. Pourrajabian et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022

Fig. 2. The continuous/binary GA procedure (The dashed blocks are exclusively used in the BGA).

Fig. 3. The single point crossover in the continuous GA.

employed to calculate the aerodynamic loadings on the blades [34]. For

that purpose, the blade is divided into a number of elements whose twist F = 2cos− 1 (e− f )/π (4)
angle and chord are known. Thereafter, those equations are used to find where
the local torque and thrust. Integration of the loadings over the blade
gives the total aerodynamic torque and CP is then computed from [37]: f = N(R − r)/(2rsinφ) (5)
∫ where N is the number of blades.
8 λ ’
Cp = a (1 − a)x3 dx (1)
λ 0
Input parameters for the optimization
where λ = Rω/V is the tip speed ratio, x = rω/V is the local speed
ratio, V is the wind velocity, a is the axial induction factor and a’ is the
Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the considered 3-bladed 1
rotational induction factor which are related at each section of the blade
kW wind turbine including the blade radius (R), the rotational speed
through the following equation [37]:
(Ω), the design tip speed ratio (λp) and also the design wind speed (U).
(1 − a) The SG6043 airfoil [38,39] was selected as the blade profile and its
tanφ = (2)
x(1 + a’ ) aerodynamic properties, the drag coefficients (Cd) and the lift co­
efficients (Cl), were tabulated for a variety of Reynolds numbers (Re) and
here φ is the inflow angle which is the summation of the angle of
angles of attack (α). During the BEM calculations and based on the
attack (α) and the twist angle (θ) [37]:
values of Re and α, the corresponding values of Cd and Cl are called to
φ = α+θ (3) find the forces acting on each blade element.
Values of GA parameters including the population size (Ps), the
It should be noted that the blade geometry, the distributions of the
chord and twist angle, is the input parameter for the BEM analysis and is
Table 1
provided by the GAs through the optimization.
The technical characteristics of 1 kW wind turbine [40].
In order to consider tip loss during the BEM analysis, Prandtl’s tip
loss correction factor, F, was also applied directly to the momentum and Parameter and value Parameter and value Parameter and value

blade element equations as follows [11] Number of blades (N) = 3 U = 10 m/s λp = 5.71
Airfoil type: SG6043 R = 1.21 m Ω = 450 rpm

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A. Pourrajabian et al.
mutation rate (μ) and also the number of generations are summarized in
Table 2. As will be outlined in the next section, the optimization pro­
cedure was performed within the combination of these values for both
BGA and CGA. More specifically, 24 optimization cases will be per­
formed. Allocating lower values to the mutation rate is recommended by
the researchers as higher values would slow the GA convergence [30].
For the population size, however, a broad range was considered; Table 2.
A combination of the small value for the population size and a large one
for the generation would guarantee a sufficient exploration of the so­
lution space. The reverse case holds also true and will be analyzed.
Fifteen blade elements were selected along the blade and therefore,
the problem consists of 30 design variables. Table 3 lists the range of the
twist angle (θ) and also the non-dimensional chord (c/R) which are
forced by the manufacturing limitations and difficulties [40]. In the
binary GA, five bits were dedicated to each design variable and therefore
each allocated range listed in Table 3 was divided into 32 pieces (25)
from which the optimal ones should be determined in fifteen stations
along the blade. In the continuous GA, however, any floating-point
number could be selected from the allocated range.
Results
This section presents the outcomes of the study. At first, the valida­
tion of the BEM analysis is investigated in subsection 3.1. Then, the
optimization results are provided. Also will be investigated are the effect
of employing the uniform crossover and the “Superblade” operator.
Finally, the computational cost of the BGA and CGA is analyzed.
Validation of the numerical procedure
An in-house code written by MATLAB was used for both optimization
procedure and also BEM analysis. Prior to the optimization study, it is
necessary to evaluate the accuracy of the BEM analysis as the fitness
values (objective function values) are calculated through that analysis.
In this regard, wind tunnel data measured by Anderson et al. [41] was
selected to assess the programmed code of the present study. Table 4
summarizes the technical parameters of Andersons’s turbine including
the blade length, the design speed, the blade profile and the number of
blades [41]. Moreover, the distributions of the chord and twist for this
two-bladed turbine are given in Table 5. The lift and the drag co­
efficients of NACA4412 profile are shown in Fig. 4 for a broad range of
angle of attack (α) and also Reynolds number (Re). These values were
tabulated and called during the BEM analysis.
Power coefficient (Cp) values for the present study are compared
with the wind tunnel data in Fig. 5 where the variations in Cp is depicted
over a broad range of the tip speed ratio (λ). As can be seen, the nu­
merical results are close to the experimental data, ensuring that the
numerical procedure is on the right track.
Optimization results
The optimization procedure was done for the 1 kW turbine whose
characteristics were summarized in Table 1. For that purpose, values of
Cl and Cd for SG6043, shown in Fig. 6, were tabulated before the opti­
mization process. During the optimization procedure, the different
combinations for Re and α were reached which are not necessarily
identical to the wind tunnel conditions shown in Fig. 6. For that case, the
interpolation/extrapolation was employed for finding the aerodynamic
coefficients. It should be noted that the maximum lift to drag for this
Table 2
GA input parameters for the optimization.
Parameter and value Parameter and value Parameter and value
Population size = 50, 100, 1000, Mutation rate = 0.05, 0.1, Number of generations = 500,1000,
2000 0.15 2000
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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022
Table 3
The allocated range for design variables [40].
Parameter and value Parameter and value
Minimum c/R = 0.01 Maximum c/R = 0.2
Minimum θ = -5o Maximum θ = 25o
Table 4
The characteristics of Andersons’s turbine [11,41,42].
Blade length (m) Design speed Blade profile Number of blades
1.5 10 m/s NACA4412 2
airfoil occurs at α = 5◦ and the corresponding Cl is 1.22 [43].
Table 6 summarizes the values of Cp for 24 cases: 12 for BGA and 12
for CGA. Each case was evolved through a large number of generations.
As an example, Fig. 7 shows the variations in Cp during the GA cycle for
one of the CGA cases. Also shown is the Betz-Joukowsky limit (16/27 ~
0.6). As can be seen, the convergence rate of CGA is faster than the BGA.
Results highlight that values of Cp for CGA are slightly larger than
BGA, implying that the blades designed by CGA could harness more
kinetic energy from the wind than those designed by the BGA. The
flexibility of the CGA for choosing any arbitrary real number for the
design variables (chord and twist angle) is the main reason for that while
this is not the case for the BGA where the values of the chord and twist
angle should necessarily be selected from the allocated range deter­
mined by the number of bits.
Irrespective of adopting BGA or CGA, results emphasize that the use
of lower values for the mutation rate results in higher Cp. Particularly for
BGA, applying the larger value for the mutation rate (0.15) led to the
noticeable lower Cp listed in Table 6.
Although the use of BGA led to the lower values for Cp, the results
summarized in Table 6 indicate that choosing a small number of popu­
lation size for the BGA, could increase the power coefficient. The same is
also true for the CGA, albeit by the smaller degree (Table 6). These re­
sults highlight that applying the small values for both population size
and also the mutation rate would result in higher Cp for both BGA and
CGA. For the 30 design variables along the blade, the outcomes of the
optimization study suggest the use of 0.05 for the mutation rate and 50
for the population size.
Optimal variables
Figs. 8 and 9 show the optimal distributions of the chord and twist for
both BGA and CGA. Note that the successive plots were displaced up­
wards. Also shown are the “ideal” distributions of the chord (c) and twist
(θ) which were derived by Burton et al. [34]:
16π
c= √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
[ ]2 (6)
9Cl Nλ 49 + λr + (9λ2r )
and
2
θ = φ − α, tanφ = (7)
3λr + λ2r
Neglecting the tip loss and drag forces, these ideal curves were
developed for a wind turbine working at the Betz-Joukowsky limit.
These are widely used by the researchers to assess the performance of
their optimization tool. It is worth noting that similar to the well-known
Schmitz theory [45] the effect of wake rotation was considered in the
derivation of Eqs. (6) and (7). The distributions derived by the Schmitz
theory agree well with Eqs. (6) and (7), especially as λ increases. In fact,
the ideal Eqs. (6) and (7) are more general than classical optimum dis­
tributions derived by the Schmitz theory and also the Betz one [45].
A. Pourrajabian et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022

Table 5
The geometric characteristics of Andersons’s turbine blade [11,41,42].
Radius (cm) 19.5 28.5 37.5 46.5 55.5 64.5 73.5 82.5 91.5 100.5 109.5 118.5 127.5 136.5 145.5

Chord (cm) 25.3 20.5 16.9 14.0 11.9 10.3 9.1 8.2 7.5 6.9 6.3 5.8 5.4 5.0 4.7
Twist (deg.) 24.7 16.8 11.3 7.6 5.2 3.7 2.7 1.9 1.2 0.6 0.2 − 0.3 − 0.7 − 1.1 − 1.5

Fig. 4. Variations in Cd (top) and Cl (bottom) for NACA4412 [11].

Fig. 5. Variations in the power coefficient with respect to the tip speed ratio for Anderson’s turbine [41].

As can be seen, the optimal distributions for both BGA and CGA are
identical to these ideal relations, implying that the optimization tool of
the present study performs well. However, a close look at Figs. 8 and 9
reveals that the chord/twist distribution is not completely smooth
especially for the first element in the root part of the blade. This is due to
the very small contribution of this element in production of total aero­
dynamic torque (Q). In fact, the main part of Q is generated by the el­
ements near the blade tip rather than the root ones. This forces GA to
evolve the design variables, i.e. chord and twist, near the tip part
compared to the root one, leading to the smooth distribution from the

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A. Pourrajabian et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022

Fig. 6. Variations in Cd (top) and Cl (bottom) for SG6043 [44].

Table 6
Values of Cp with respect to the generation, population size and the mutation rate.
GA type Mutation rate Population Generation Population Generation Population Generation Population Generation

50 2000 100 1000 1000 1000 2000 500

BGA 0.05 0.488 0.488 0.477 0.473

CGA 0.05 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
BGA 0.1 0.45 0.429 0.45 0.447
CGA 0.1 0.495 0.494 0.491 0.491
BGA 0.15 0.451 0.447 0.455 0.441
CGA 0.15 0.496 0.493 0.49 0.489

mid part of the blade toward the tip. To investigate this issue in detail,
Fig. 10 depicts the aerodynamic torque along the blade. As shown, it
gradually increases towards the tip. The small drop at the blade tip is due
to the inclusion of the tip loss in the BEM analysis mentioned earlier. As
labeled in Fig. 10, the contribution of the fifteenth element (corre­
sponding to 0.044) is far larger than the first one (0.004). Fig. 11 also
shows the variations in the aerodynamic torque of these elements during
the CGA cycle. It is seen that the local torque for the first element
converged to the value that is not the highest one which is not the case
for the fifteenth element for which the optimization algorithm
converged to the highest one (See Fig. 11).
Effect of employing uniform crossover
The crossover operator performed here was the single-point one
shown in Fig. 3. It is argued that this technique could not appropriately
cover the space of design variables [30]. In fact, the children produced
by this operator are very similar to their parents except for one design
variable (See Fig. 3). This reduces the convergence rate of the GA and
adds to the computational time.
The uniform crossover, instead, is deemed to be more effective
[30,46]. Fig. 12 shows how the uniform crossover operates in the BGA.
Following the randomly generation of the so-called “Mask” vector, the
corresponding bits with zero values are selected for the crossover.
Similar to the single point crossover, the uniform crossover is also

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A. Pourrajabian et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022

Fig. 7. Variations in CP through the CGA (Ps = 50, μ = 0.05).
performed in the CGA as follows [30]:
with respect to each other in the BEM analysis. In fact, the BEM analysis
is carried out for all the blades elements to give the local thrust and the
local aerodynamic torque. Since the BEM computations for each element
is independent of the others, choosing the local design variables (i.e., the
chord and the twist) based on the maximum value of the local aero­
dynamic torque leads to a new blade called the “Superblade” which is
not already in the population matrix. This idea is very beneficial as the
corresponding chord/twist of the maximum aerodynamic torque could
be selected for each element in each generation. The elements of the blade
generated by this creative operator produce maximum aerodynamic
torque and hence output power. By unchangeably moving this specific
blade from the current generation to the next one, the algorithm is
guided toward a more powerful blade, the aim of the optimization.
To find the efficiency of this operator, the optimization procedure
was repeated by including that in the GA cycle. Fig. 14 shows the var­
iations in Cp for one of the BGA cases. As indicated, the convergence rate

offspring1 = parent1 − [β1(pm1 − pd1), β2(pm2 − pd2), ⋯, βNvar(pmNvar − pdNvar) ]

(8)
offspring2 = parent2 + [β1(pm1 − pd1), β2(pm2 − pd2), ⋯, βNvar(pmNvar − pdNvar) ]

As can be seen, the uniform crossover is a robust operator which
forces the algorithm to efficiently explore the solution space. Fig. 13
shows the fitness function of this study for both the single-point cross­
over and the uniform one. It is seen that the adoption of the uniform
crossover led to a more powerful blade (Fig. 13).
of the algorithm expedited significantly thanks to the use of “Super­
blade” operator. Moreover, the optimal value of Cp has slightly increased
(Fig. 14).

Effect of employing “Superblade” operator

Genetic algorithms have a flexible framework as any creative oper­

ator could be added to their standard charts provided that it improves
the optimization convergence. Such an example is the elitism operator
mentioned earlier which is not in the canonical GA but it enhances the
convergence rate and is used widely by the researchers [30].
In this regard, it is suggested that any specific operator could be
employed for a specific problem [30]. For the design and optimization of
wind turbine blades, the so-called “Superblade” operator could speed up
Fig. 10. The variations in aerodynamic torque along the blade (μ = 0.05, Ps
the convergence rate of the algorithm. It could be used either in BGA or
= 50).
CGA. The idea behind that is the independency of the blade elements

Fig. 8. Variations in the non-dimensional chord along the blade (successive plots were displaced upwards by 0.2).

Fig. 9. Variations in the twist angle along the blade (successive plots were displaced upwards by 25◦ ).

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Comparison of the computational time

Table 7 summarizes the computational time of the CGA and BGA for
four considered cases. All were run on a personal computer (PC) with
2.4-GHz Intel Dual Core CPU and 4-GB RAM. It is seen that the
computational time for the binary GA is larger than the continuous one.
The main reason for that is the decoding procedure of the binary space to
the real one and vice versa as shown in Fig. 2. Moreover, the population
size for the BGA is noticeably larger than the CGA as the former consists
of 150 (30 × 5) bits for every candidate blade while the corresponding
figure for the latter is only 30. This also adds to the computational time
during the optimization process.

Conclusions

Evolutionary optimization techniques including genetic algorithms

Fig. 11. The variations in the aerodynamic torque for the 1st (top) and 15th
(bottom) elements during the CGA cycle (Ps = 50, μ = 0.05).
are widely used for engineering problems. Two main types of genetic
algorithms, the binary approach and the real-coded one, were adopted
in this study for the design and optimization of wind turbine blades to
find the features and suitability of each approach from the standpoints of
convergence rate and also the computational cost. Originally, the idea of
the genetic algorithm was introduced by the binary form of variables.
Generally, if the optimization variables could be represented as floating-
point numbers, both methods could be employed but the continuous
genetic algorithm is not applicable to the variables that are essentially in
the binary form. It is also important to note that the precision of the
binary approach is limited by the number of allocated bits while this is
not the case for the continuous technique for which the precision of the
algorithm is the machine precision. The idea behind the study, carried
out for the first time, was to find the appropriate type of genetic

Fig. 12. The uniform crossover in BGA.

Fig. 13. Variations of power coefficient during the BGA cycle for two types of crossover (Ps = 50, μ = 0.05).

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A. Pourrajabian et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 44 (2021) 101022

Fig. 14. Variations of power coefficient during the BGA cycle (Ps = 50, μ = 0.15).

Table 7
Run time (s) for four cases based on the population size and the number of generations (μ = 0.05).
Population Generation Population Generation Population Generation Population Generation
2000 500 50 2000 100 1000 1000 1000

BGA 924 s 616 s 241 s 1069 s

CGA 679.8 s 425 s 161 s 721 s

algorithms for finding more powerful blades. This would be of para­
mount importance as it could be a step forward towards the improve­
ment of wind turbines technology and thus making them more profitable
and sustainable. The design variables consist of the distributions of the
chord and twist angle. The blade-element momentum theory was
adopted for the calculation of the objective function. The optimal dis­
tribution of the design variables including the chord and twist angle was
assessed with the so-called ideal distribution which approved the ac­
curacy of the programmed code. Results highlighted that the continuous
type outperforms the binary one. The sensitivity analysis of the genetic
algorithm parameters revealed that the small number of population size
and also the mutation rate are suitable for finding the optimal solution
provided that a large number of generations is allocated for running the
genetic algorithm cycle. Moreover, results indicated that replacing the
standard single-point crossover with the uniform one could explore the
solution space more effectively, leading to more powerful blades for a
constant number of generations. Also investigated was the efficiency of
the so-called “Superblade” operator which selects the design variables
for each blade element based on the aerodynamic torque. This results in
a blade whose elements produce more aerodynamic torque. For that
purpose, the design variables, chord and twist, were selected at the end
of each generation and moved unchangeably to the next one. This
customized operator was added to the canonical genetic algorithms
which not only improved the convergence rate of the algorithm but also
led to the powerful blade, the goal of the optimization. To sum up, the
simultaneously use of a continuous genetic algorithm and the “Super­
blade” operator requires less computational time and more importantly
results in more powerful blades. Although considering a sophisticated
objective function such as a multi-objective one would increase the
computational cost, this does not necessarily raise doubts about the
general outcomes of the study achieved through different combinations
of genetic algorithm parameters, the population size and the mutation
rate, for both continuous approach and the binary one.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Abolfazl Pourrajabian: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - review & editing.
Maziar Dehghan: Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing - re­
view & editing. Saeed Rahgozar: Software, Validation, Formal analysis,
Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Iran National Science Foundation
“INSF” (Grant number 97023376).
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