Department of Energy Engineering, College of Energy and Environment, Science and Research branch of Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
c
Collage of Surveying Engineering, Department of GIS, Khaje Nasir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
b
art ic l e i nf o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 18 May 2014
Received in revised form
1 September 2014
Accepted 13 October 2014
Available online 18 November 2014
In this study a multi-objective genetic algorithm is utilized to obtain a Pareto optimal set of solutions for
geometrical characteristics of airfoil sections for 10-meter blades of a horizontal axis wind turbine. The
performance of the airfoil sections during the process of energy conversion is evaluated deploying a 2D
incompressible unsteady CFD solver and the second law analysis. Articial neural networks are trained
employing CFD obtained data sets to represent objective functions in an algorithm which implements
exergetic performance and integrity characteristics as optimization objectives. The results show that utilizing
the second law approach along with Pareto optimality concept leads to a set of precise solutions which
represent minimum energy waste, maximum efciency, and topmost stability. Furthermore, enhanced rotor
performance coefcients are observed through a BEM study which compares conventional designs with the
second law obtained congurations. Exergy analysis is believed to be an efcient tool in the optimal design of
wind turbine blades with the capability of determining the amount of lost opportunities to do useful work.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Wind turbine airfoils
Exergy analysis
CFD
Articial neural network
Pareto optimal set
1. Introduction
Depleting sources of fossil fuels and the environmental issues
associated with utilizing them have made development of alternative
and clean energy sources and their effective employment a considerably rapid process (IEA, 2013). Wind energy market is experiencing a
signicant growth which stands out among renewable energy technologies and is expected to extend even in a more substantial way.
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) have been demonstrated to
be the transcendent machine tools in extracting the energy from the
wind (Hau, 2006; Gipe, 2004); these machines possess a number of
advantages when compared with Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
(VAWTs), such as higher energy efciency, more mechanical stability,
less sensitiveness to off design conditions, etc. Thus, effective extraction of the wind stream energy with less energy waste, obtaining a
comprehensive understanding of the energy conversion phenomena,
and economic analysis of these systems have become an area of
concern for technology leaders as well as an area of interest for
researchers (Mehta et al., 2014; Arroyo et al., 2013; Castellani and
Vignaroli, 2013; Castellani and Garinei, 2013; McKenna et al., 2014;
Jung and Kwon, 2013; Jha, 2010; Burton et al., 2011; Wood, 2011). In
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2014.10.009
0167-6105/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
Nomenclature
A
a
a0
c
Cp
_
Ex
,
F
H
I
_
m
k
P
Q
r
R
Re
S
t
T
U
,
V
y
Area [m2]
Axial induction factor
Tangential induction factor
Chord length [m]
Specic heat kJ=kgK
Exergy rate kW
External body force
Energy
Unit tensor
Mass ow rate kg=s
Thermal conductivity W=m2 K
Static pressure Pa
Heat [J]
Radius [m]
Gases constant J=Kmol
Reynolds number
Source term
Time [s]
Temperature [K]
Undisturbed velocity m=s
Velocity component m=s
Free stream velocity m=s
Turbulence wall Y Plus
Greek Letters
shape. The Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory was used in the
algorithm of uid dynamics analysis. The software made developing
various designs for many different conditions affordable.
Leung et al., (2010) obtained the optimum design of the rotor of a
small wind turbine by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
analysis. The objective of this study was performance evaluation of
small wind turbines which usually extract energy from low speed
wind streams. The study investigated the variation of the performance
of micro wind turbine with different design parameters. The results
showed that the performance of high-solidity wind rotors is more
desirable than that consisting of low-solidity rotors.
The overall efciency of a wind turbine might depend on
several contributing factors, such as generator performance, the
ratio of the gear box system and the height of the hub from the
ground, which are not investigated in this study. Generally, with
specied wind distribution and at a given range for rotational
speed of the rotor, the most important issue to address will be
selection of the airfoils and their geometrical properties along the
blade (Jha, 2010; Burton et al., 2011; Wood, 2011; Cengel and
Boles, 2006).
Typically, common design methodologies employ the rst law
of thermodynamics for wind power system analysis and design
(Benini and Toffolo, 2002; Jureczko et al., 2005; Vitale and Rossi,
2008; Leung et al., 2010). Through these methods a theoretical
maximum efciency can be predicted, but the loss of opportunities
to produce more useful work is not evaluated. According to Dincer
and Rossen (2012), to provide an efcient and effective use of the
energy sources, it is essential to consider both the quality and
quantity of the energy used to achieve a given objective. In this
regard, the second law of thermodynamics deals with the quality
of energy and it simply analyzes degradation of the energy during
a process, entropy generation and the lost opportunities to do
work (Dincer and Rossen, 2012; Dincer et al., 2014). Entropy-based
design and exergy analysis have been shown to identify the
maximum theoretical capability of energy system performance
63
Subscripts
0
at
D
dest
ef f
in
L
Loss
m
out
ph
product
rel
work
x
y
Reference condition
Atmosphere condition
Drag
Destruction
Effective
Inow
Lift
Loss
Mass
Outow
Physical
Products
Relative
Work
Streamwise direction
Vertical direction
64
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
(Jafari and Kosasih, 2014), wind farm evaluation (Choi et al., 2013),
wake behavior detection (Abdesalam et al., 2014), etc. (Blocken,
2014). In this study a 2D incompressible unsteady CFD solver, based
on the nite volume method is implemented to provide imperative
information for a second law analysis (i.e., exergy efciency and
dissipated exergy evaluation) around the airfoil in various conditions
of Reynolds number, section's radius, chord length and ow angle.
The data sets achieved in CFD simulations will further be deployed in
the learning process of the articial neural networks making it
possible to predict exergy efciency and exergy loss for those cases
which are not individually simulated. Note that the CFD approach is
homologous for all simulated airfoils and the same procedure is
preserved for each and every case.
2.1. Governing equations
2.1.1. NavireStokes equations
The mathematical model for the study of uid dynamics
problems is based on the fundamental mass, momentum and
energy conversion principles. The approach used in this study is
called Reynolds Averaged NavireStokes (RANS) modeling. These
equations govern transport of the averaged ow quantities, and
can be used for the entire ow eld.
,
: Sm
1
t
t
,
,,
, ,
: :p : g F
,
H : H p : kef f T S
t
2 ,
,
,T
: I
3
2
3
4
_
Denition of Ex
product can be deemed as a pivotal task of the
second law analysis since description of a convenient product
directly pertains to the quality and feasibility of the second law
method. Based on the aerodynamic ground, the instrumental
product of this process would be the resultant lift force acting
perpendicular to the surface of the airfoil; therefore, the exergy of
the lift force could be an expeditious demonstration of the exergy
of the products. The exergy of the lift force is given by
Exlif t F L V y V y0
Eq. (9) expresses the condition in which the exergy of the inow is
thoroughly converted to the exergy of the product with no
destruction. Note that if V y0 was set to be zero, the connotation
would be that the exergy required for achieving and maintaining
the lift is zero, which is not applicable for airfoil application.
V y is evaluated through CFD analysis, utilizing imaginary lines
which are literally generated according to airfoil's surface shape
and placed 10 7 meters above the upper surface and below the
lower surface of the airfoil. Utilizing this method will lead to
obtaining velocity values on the airfoils surface acceptably since
due to the no slip condition deployed on the surfaces, the solver
assumes that these values are zero on the actual airfoil surfaces.
Thus, V y is computed by averaging the node values on the
imaginary lines.
With the exergy efciency evaluated using the discussed
approach, the summation of exergy destruction and exergy loss
for each ow condition will be determined using Eq. (5), this
summation will be referred to as dissipated exergy in this
manuscript. Note that dissipated exergy would represent losses
from the viscous dissipation phenomenon and the accompanied
parasitic drag force acting on the airfoil's surface. The Viscous
Dissipation term is the destruction of uctuating velocity gradients by the action of viscous stresses. With this approach, an utter
cognition of the lost energy conversion opportunities will be
provided which can be perceived as the unique advantage of the
second law method.
2.2. Computational domain
Fig. 1(a) shows the 2D computational domain; the utilized grid is
comprised of quadratic elements. A high resolution grid is employed
near the airfoil surface due to the importance of this region in
boundary layer modeling, the resolution of the grid decreases when
moving far from the airfoil and near the far eld boundaries to make
calculations less time consuming. Fig. 1(b) shows the ne grid around
the airfoil. Note that this initial grid around the airfoil will undergo
adaption (renement) in the process of the simulation, in order to
match the convergence criteria for different ow conditions. Furthermore, the total grid nodes number might not be precisely the same
after adaption, due to preservation of the mentioned criteria for
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
65
Fig. 1. Computational domain around the airfoil: (a) complete grid and (b) ne grid around airfoil.
different cases. However, the number of total nodes for the simulation case consisting of a standard S814 airfoil encountering ow
regime with Reynolds number equal to 106 and an angle of attack of
151 emerges to be 450806 with exactly 614 nodes on the airfoil's
surface.
2.2.1. Solving methods
Despite the problem being naturally steady-state, the ow
around the airfoil inherently tends to instabilities at high angles
of attack; thus, a transient approach has been implemented
throughout all angles of attack in order to maintain a consistent
method of evaluation. The low Reynolds ow around the airfoil
sections is considered as incompressible; as a result, the pressurebased method is used. The pressurevelocity coupling algorithm
is PISO since the simulations are conducted in an unsteady
manner; the discretization of the convection terms in the transport equations is selected to be the second order upwind. A
detailed description of these methods can be found in Ferziger and
Peric (2013).
Three main criteria are majorly considered in order to guarantee the convergence of the solution.
1. Convergence of lift and drag coefcients on the airfoil.
2. Convergence of velocity magnitude on the effective area
adjacent to the airfoils surface.
3. Proper wall y .
Lift and drag coefcients are considered as substantial aerodynamic characteristics of the ow, thus the no-uctuation
behavior should be obtained during the solution for these parameters. Velocity magnitude of near airfoil region represents great
importance in evaluating V y ; therefore, this parameter should be
monitored as the solution converges. Turbulence wall y is a
factor of correct boundary layer modeling, thus during the solution
process, the grid is rened to obtain y between 1 and 5 to
guarantee the requirements for this parameter. This adaption
repeats until y lies within the proper condition and there are
no signicant changes in other solution parameters observed. In
other words, the independency of solution to the utilized grid is
obtained by changing the grid around the airfoil; with this
approach, for each and every simulation case a distinct grid
independency study is conducted, which renes the initial general
grid for different ow conditions (i.e., Re and AOA) and airfoil
shapes to fulll a coherent y requirement.
2.2.2. CFD results and airfoil selection
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed several families of special-purpose airfoils for HAWTs (NREL
Airfoil Families for HAWTs, 1995). Three airfoil families have been
66
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
10
11
In Eqs. (10) and (11) stands for the rotational speed of the
rotor, r represents the radius of the section, and a and a0 are the
induction factors. Also is the ow angle and and represent
the angles of attack and twist of the section, respectively. If the
tangential and radial forces acting on an airfoil are known, a
reverse method can be utilized in which the induction factors can
be calculated using correction Eqs. (10) and (11). As a result, when
a CFD simulation is conducted for a known resultant velocity,
radius of the section, chord length and ow angle, it is possible to
evaluate in what combination of wind free stream velocity and
rotational speed, the assumed, initial resultant velocity and ow
angle occur. Hence, it is feasible to approximately investigate the
real conditions of a wind turbine blade. In this study, based on trial
and error and utilizing the discussed reverse method, resultant
free stream velocities and ow angles are employed so that they
represent different wind free stream velocities equal to 5, 10, 15,
and 20 m=s and the various rotational rates of the rotor including
30, 60, 100, and 140rpm. Further, for every considered airfoil
section and radius, various ow conditions are investigated
according to common restrictions on chord length and ow angle
for a 10-meters blade. It can be observed from these simulations
that at a constant inow velocity and ow angle, exergy efciency
and dissipated exergy both behave proportional to chord length of
the section, which is considered to be quite sensible since the lift
force, parasitic drag force, and viscous dissipation all tend to grow
as a result of that altercation.
Table 1
NREL airfoil families under study.
Airfoil family
Root
Medial
Tip
F1
F2
F3
S814
S815
S811
S825
S812
S809
S826
S813
S810
Fig. 2. Comparison of CFD results for S825 with wind tunnel test data, Re 106 . (a) Lift coefcient and (b) drag coefcient.
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
67
Fig. 3. Plots of second law performance characteristics of the understudy airfoil. (Re 106 ).
Table 2
Low Reynolds number second law performance evaluation for under study airfoils.
Reynolds number
3 105
Performance characteristic -
Exergy efciency
Angle of attack -
S811
S814
S815
S809
S825
S812
S810
S826
S813
0.0753
0.1489
0.0662
0.0784
0.5713
0.1468
0.1132
0.7056
0.2448
0.5395
0.6687
0.5806
0.5590
0.9284
0.6473
0.5517
0.8835
0.7025
Reynolds Number
6.5 105
Performance characteristic -
Exergy efciency
Angle of attack -
S811
S814
S815
S809
S825
S812
S810
S826
S813
0.0296
0.1039
0.0581
0.0359
0.2507
0.0667
0.0439
0.2899
0.0991
0.2699
0.2923
0.3069
0.2443
0.3885
0.2300
0.2395
0.4410
0.3182
15
0.4558
0.4709
0.4850
0.3312
0.4070
0.3901
0.2740
0.4140
0.3759
20
0.4639
0.3712
0.5049
0.3060
0.3810
0.3154
0.2354
0.3722
0.2799
0.0205
0.0133
0.0190
0.0106
0.0044
0.0102
0.0092
0.0027
0.0079
0.0071
0.0053
0.0072
0.0059
0.0011
0.0049
0.0062
0.0021
0.0039
10
0.0138
0.0111
0.0120
0.0168
0.0068
0.0161
0.0160
0.0074
0.0135
15
0.0198
0.0208
0.0200
0.0250
0.0248
0.0209
0.0263
0.0246
0.0210
20
0.0166
0.0273
0.0159
0.0204
0.0188
0.0202
0.0205
0.0187
0.0202
15
0.2466
0.2602
0.2632
0.1928
0.2087
0.1953
0.1381
0.1968
0.1812
in wind free stream velocity, blade rotational rate, radius, airfoil type,
ow angle, and chord length. Note that 70% of the data sets are used
for training the network, 15% of them are employed to validate the
training process, and the remaining 15% is applied to test the network
20
0.2417
0.2599
0.2660
0.1567
0.2015
0.1808
0.0685
0.1637
0.1285
0.0647
0.0558
0.0671
0.0486
0.0345
0.0498
0.0469
0.0298
0.0414
0.0485
0.0505
0.0519
0.0441
0.0379
0.0472
0.0446
0.0322
0.0373
10
0.0793
0.0749
0.0799
0.0885
0.0681
0.0892
0.0938
0.0699
0.0853
15
0.1382
0.1449
0.1425
0.1377
0.1650
0.1393
0.1388
0.1682
0.1380
20
0.1195
0.1220
0.1206
0.1280
0.1289
0.1265
0.1294
0.1297
0.1267
68
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
69
Fig. 6. The performance of the trained MLP for predicting dissipated exergy.
Table 3
Characteristics of the trained multi-layer perceptron networks.
Articial Neural Network for exergy
efciency
Network type
Training algorithm
Number of neurons in hidden
layer
MSE of training
MSE of validation
MSE of testing
Regression of training
Regression of validation
Regression of testing
Network type
Training algorithm
Number of neurons in hidden
layer
MSE of training
MSE of validation
MSE of testing
Regression of training
Regression of validation
Regression of testing
Bcr
2 r
12
rst layer. The next step is similar to the rst one, except the
solutions of the rst layer are not considered as candidates for the
second layer. With this procedure all the individuals are sorted in
layers with a descending order for objective function merits. Thus,
considering both tness functions, solutions in the rst layer are
more creditable than solutions in the second layer, and so on.
The number of parents in each population is set to be 10% of the
number of the whole population, which leads to selecting 10
parents from the initial random population. Since the best individuals are meant to be selected as parents, solutions sorted in the
rst layer are considered. If there are not enough individuals in the
rst layer, solutions sorted in the second layer are considered,
and so on.
70
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
Fig. 7. The pattern of cross-over for an example of a possible solution in the form of a chromosome.
Fig. 8. The Pareto optimal set suggested by MOGA for the section positioned at r 1
and r 2.
Fig. 9. The Pareto optimal set suggested by MOGA for the section positioned at r 3
and r 4.
generated, this approach will generate children with new properties which may not be generated in the initial random population.
In the process of mutation some consideration must be made,
rst, the mutation in the digit of gen must be in the range of
previously mentioned physical constraints, moreover, the mutation should not take place on gens dening the second and third
decimal digits, due to the fact that mutation on the second and
third decimal digits does not change the tness function values
signicantly.
tailored for a 10 m blade. Note that these plots delineate the Pareto
optimal set (not the Pareto front) after 100 iterations for each
section, and according to the Pareto optimality concept all of the
suggested combinations of ow angle and chord length are equally
meritorious. Foremost, it is observed that although all initial
populations are generated within the specied ranges, the MOGA
enforces more conned ranges for both chord length and ow
angle. The next discernible point in the plots deals with the overall
paradigm of the positioning of the solution sets for different
sections, since the ow properties of the radii 1 and 2, 3 and 4,
5 and 6, 7 and 8, and 9 and 10 m are more likely similar, an
analogous pattern of positioning of the optimal solution points is
detectable for each mentioned pair of sections.
Moreover, in order to evaluate the performance of a rotor
consisting of blades designed through second law analysis, an open
source BEM code Qblade is employed (http://www.q-blade.org,
2013). The software is capable of conducting performance analysis
for various rotor congurations which provides the opportunity of
comparison between different blade designs. Qblade utilizes polar
data proles to investigate a rotor performance through an iterative
process.
Three different blade designs with capricious selection of chord
length and twist angle among the second law optimization results
are considered to be compared with blade congurations obtained
from conventional design methods targeting the power coefcient.
The customary methods utilized for dening the geometrical
characteristics of the blades include linear distribution, Betz
method, and Schmitz method for chord length determination
and linear distribution, optimal lift to drag ratio, and simultaneous
S.M. Mortazavi et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 136 (2015) 6272
71
Table 4
Characteristics for rotor blade congurations under study.
Design name
Chord distribution
Twist distribution
Fig. 10. The Pareto optimal set suggested by MOGA for the section positioned at
r 5 and r 6.
Fig. 11. The Pareto optimal set suggested by MOGA for the section positioned at
r 7 and r 8.
6. Conclusion
Fig. 12. The Pareto optimal set suggested by MOGA for the section positioned at
r 9 and r 10.
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