The purpose of this study is to introduce and demonstrate a fully automated process for optimizing the airfoil cross-section of a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT). The objective is to maximize the torque while enforcing typical wind turbine design constraints such as tip speed ratio, solidity, and blade profile. By fixing the tip speed ratio of the wind turbine, there exists an airfoil crosssection and solidity for which the torque can be maximized, requiring the development of an iterative design system. The design system required to maximize torque incorporates rapid geometry generation and automated hybrid mesh generation tools with viscous, unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software. The flexibility and automation of the modular design and simulation system allows for it to easily be coupled with a parallel differential evolution algorithm used to obtain an optimized blade design that maximizes the efficiency of the wind turbine.

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A two-dimensional (2-D) and a three-dimensional (3-D) conjugate heat transfer (convection-conduction) prediction codes were developed where the compressible turbulent flow Navier-Stokes equations are solved simultaneously in the flow-field and in the solid material of the structure, thus automatically predicting correct magnitudes and distribution of surface temperatures and heat fluxes. The only thermal boundary conditions are the convection heat transfer coefficients specified on the surfaces of the internal coolant flow passages and the coolant bulk temperature of internally cooled gas turbine blade.This approach eliminates the need to specify hot surface temperature or heat flux distribution. The conjugate codes use hybrid unstructured triangular/quadrilateral grids in 2-D and unstructured prismatic grids in 3-D throughout the flow-field and in the surrounding structure. The codes are capable of conjugate heat transfer prediction in arbitrarily shaped internally cooled configurations. The computer codes have been successfully tested on internally cooled turbine airfoil cascades and 3-D turbine blades by the conjugate solution of the flow field and the temperature field inside the structure.

No abstract

A two-dimensional (2-D) and a three-dimensional (3-D) conjugate heat transfer (convection-conduction) prediction codes were developed where the compressible turbulent flow Navier-Stokes equations are solved simultaneously in the flow-field and in the solid material of the structure thus automatically predicting correct magnitudes and distribution of surface temperatures and heat fluxes. The only thermal boundary conditions are the convection heat transfer coefficients specified on the surfaces of the internal coolant flow passages and the coolant bulk temperature of internally cooled gas turbine blade. This approach eliminates the need to specify hot surface temperature or heat flux distribution. The conjugate codes use hybrid unstructured triangular/quadrilateral grids in 2-D and unstructured prismatic grids in 3-D throughout the flow-field and in the surrounding structure. The codes are capable of conjugate heat transfer prediction in arbitrarily shaped internally cooled configurations. The computer codes have been successfully tested on internally cooled turbine airfoil cascades and 3-D turbine blades by the conjugate solution of the flow-field and the temperature field inside the structure.