Improved structural design of wind turbine blade based on topology and size optimization[Assessment of optimum tip speed ratio in wind turbines using artificial neural networks]

In order to compete with traditional power technologies and other energy sources, it is essential to use optimization techniques as part of the design process for wind turbine blades. This paper presents an optimization approach for the improved structural design of blades, aiming at further decreasing the blade mass and bringing down the cost. The optimization approach mainly consists of two steps. In the first step, topology optimization of a full 1.5 MW wind turbine blade is carried out with the expectation of finding an improved internal structural configuration by taking minimum compliance as an objective. In the second step, the topology optimization results are interpreted to create a shell finite element model of the blade to analyse the influence of distinguishing characteristic parameters on the blade performances; then, size optimizations of the blades with improved structural configuration and conventional structure are performed by considering the minimum mass as objective, key structural parameters as variables, strain, deflection, vibration and buckling limits as constraints. The final optimization results show that the blade with improved structural configuration can reach a further mass saving of 3% compared with the optimized conventional structure design, indicating that the proposed approach is effective and reliable.