An innovative aerodynamic design methodology of wind turbine blade models for wind tunnel real-time hybrid tests based on genetic algorithm

The physical model tests of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) in wave basins cannot simulate the aerodynamic loads accurately. The real-time hybrid model test in wind tunnel provided a better solution to this problem, especially for the simulation of unsteady aerodynamic behaviors. The key to wind tunnel test is the design of aerodynamic thrust-matched blade model. In this paper, an innovative methodology was proposed to design the wind turbine blade models for the wind tunnel tests, based on the genetic algorithm. The design was focused on the aerodynamic thrust performance of blade model to achieve equivalent aerodynamic thrust under different wind speeds. To prove the applicability of this methodology, the DTU 10 MW and NREL 5 MW wind turbine were used for case study and the low-Reynolds airfoil SD7032 was chosen for the aerodynamic design. During the design process, three shape control methods were employed for the twist angles and chords of blades and the effects of these three methods were also compared. The aerodynamic performances of blade models were verified using Aerodyn of FAST, compared to the prototypes. According to the results, the aerodynamic thrust performances of blade models reached good agreement with prototypes in the full wind speed range.