POPULAR DEMOCRATIC ALGERIAN REPUBLIC

HIGHER NATIONAL SCHOOL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY,

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
2nd year Renewable Energy Engineer
Practical work: Design and Optimization of Wind Power Plants
Pr. M.AKSAS & Mr. A.BOUTAGHANE
TP 01 : Wind Turbine Blade Design on SolidWorks

 Introduction :

A wind turbine is a device that transforms the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical energy, called
wind energy, which is then most often transformed into electrical energy.
As the diagram shows below (Fig.01), a wind turbine is composed of different elements such as the mast,
the blades, and the nacelle, but also a steering system, a brake, a multiplier, an electrical control system, a
generator, etc.
It seems obvious that the blades of the wind turbine turn thanks to the force of the wind. But this is more
complicated than it looks like. A wind turbine blade works a bit like an airplane wing: when the wind hits
the leading edge of the wing, it creates a depression on the wing extrados, and an overpressure on its
intrados. Indeed, the airflow has a higher velocity on the extrados. This overpressure and depression form
the lift (Fig.02).

Fig.01 : Scheme of a wind turbine. Fig.02 : Profile of a blade.

The blades are the most important part of the wind turbine, the efficiency, smooth operation and lifetime
of the machine will depend on their design, when they are assembled forming the propeller or rotor. There
are very few manufacturers in the world able to build these blades which are made of glass fiber and
carbon fiber.

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The blades are characterised by:

• Their length
• Their profile (or multiple profiles)

The profile of an aerodynamic element is its longitudinal section (parallel to the velocity vector). Its
geometry is characterized by Camber (non-existent if the profile is symmetric), thickness and thickness
distribution (radius of leading edge, location of maximum thickness). At given fluid, speed and angle of
attack, this geometry determines the flow of the fluid around the profile, therefore the intensity of the
forces generated at any time, lift and drag.

Fig.03: Illustration of the wing concept in three dimensions. Fig.04: Aerodynamic profile.

Among the most widely used profiles are NACA profiles which are aerodynamic profiles that developed by
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, USA). The shape of the NACA profiles is described
using a series of numbers that follow the word “NACA”. The numbers in this series can then be entered
into equations to accurately generate the wing section (its profile) and determine its properties. All
dimensions in % are defined as % of rope length (Fig.4) as:

M: The maximum camber of the rope in percentage of rope length.

P: The position of the maximum camber in percentage of rope length.
T: the percentage of the rope for maximum rope thickness.

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 Fig.05 : Detail of the meaning of the NACA standardized code.

 TP Objective:

During this TP, we are going to do a detailed design of a blade, from the simplest to other models known
and used in the industry, all this on SolidWorks.
SolidWorks is a computer aided design (CAD) software for solid modelling. SolidWorks allows engineers
and designers to create custom designs with precise specifications and dimensions.
This first TP is an important prelude to other studies on blades that we are going to do later.

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  Steps to follow :

1. Open SolidWorks, select New and

select Part.
We note that SolidWorks has
advanced options such as assembly
and drawing.

Step 01

2. In the second step, choose one of the

planes on which we will design, in
this case it is better to use the front
plane.

Step 02

3. After you select the plane, on the

toolbar, choose Insert > Curve >
Curve Through XYZ Points.

Step 03

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4. In the curve file, click Browse select
the coordinates file.

Step 04

5. When all coordinates are loaded, the

program displays the curve that
needs to be converted to sketch by
clicking Convert Entities.

Step 05

6. When we have finished inserting

the profile on the face plane, we
can then convert it to a blade by
clicking Extruded Boss where we
can select the appropriate length.

Step 06

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7. After all the previous steps, we get a
very simple turbine wing, these steps are
the most important in the design of the
wing on SolidWorks. The software also
allows you to add other properties such
as mass, material of manufacture etc.

Step 07

 Work requested:

1. Follow the steps above for different profiles, symmetric, asymmetric.

2. Create a blade from a different set of profiles. What do you notice?
3. Create a twist blade.