Optimized design of tidal current turbine airfoil for water efficiency

Based on NACA63816, NACA63815 and NACA63813 airfoils, an airfoil for large hydraulic turbines is designed. The design optimization software iSight was used to establish an airfoil optimization model building on multi-island genetic algorithm, and the computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation approach was applied to analyze the flow field. The lift-to-drag ratio, drag coefficient and maximum thickness T m at an airfoil angle of attack of 5 degrees are selected as the optimization target parameters to derive the hydrodynamic coefficients of the airfoil. The optimized airfoil lift coefficients increased by 20%/15%/14% and the lift-to-drag ratios rised by 28%/16%/14%.