Using PSO Algorithm to Compensate Power Loss Due to the Aeroelastic Effect of the Wind Turbine Blade

• Main Authors: Ying Zhao, Caicai Liao, Zhiwen Qin, Ke Yang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-09-01
• Series: Processes
• Subjects: aeroelastic effect; pretwisting method; power loss; optimization model; pretwist angle
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/7/9/633

Power loss due to the aeroelastic effect of the blade is becoming an important problem of large-scale blade design. Prior work has already employed the pretwisting method to deal with this problem and obtained some good results at reference wind speed. The aim of this study was to compensate for the power loss for all of the wind speeds by using the pretwisting method. Therefore, we developed an aeroelastic coupling optimization model, which takes the pretwist angles along the blade as free variables, the maximum AEP (annual energy production) as the optimal object, and the smooth of the twist distribution as one of the constraint conditions. In this optimization model, a PSO (particle swarm optimization) algorithm is used and combined with the BEM-3DFEM (blade element momentum—three-dimensional finite element method) model. Then, the optimization model was compared with an iteration method, which was recently developed by another study and can well compensate the power loss at reference wind speed. By a design test, we found that the power loss can be reduced by pretwisting the origin blade, whether using the optimization model or the iteration method. Moreover, the optimization model has better ability than the iteration method to compensate the power loss with lower thrust coefficient while keeping the twist distribution smooth.