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Title: Design of a Tapered and Twisted Blade for the NREL Combined Experiment Rotor

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/750919· OSTI ID:750919

A tapered/twisted blade was designed to operate on the Combined Experiment Rotor (CER) of the National Renewable Energy Lab., which is a stall-regulated downwind wind turbine having a rated power of 20 kilowatt. The geometry of the new blade set was optimized based on annual energy production subject to the constraints imposed on the design. These constraints were mainly related to scientific needs for fundamental research in rotor aerodynamics. A trade-off study was conducted to determine the effect of the different design constraints. Based on the results of this study, which considered nonlinear twist and taper distributions as well as the NREL S809, S814, S822 and S823 airfoils, a blade having a linear taper and a nonlinear twist distribution that uses the S809 airfoil from root to tip was selected. This blade configuration is the logical continuation of the previous constant-chord twisted and untwisted blade sets and will facilitate comparison with those earlier blades. Despite the design constraints based on scientific needs, the new blade is more representative of commercial blades than the previous blade sets.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-99GO10337
OSTI ID:
750919
Report Number(s):
NREL/SR-500-26173; TRN: US200311%%12
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Supercedes report DE00750919; PBD: 12 Apr 1999; PBD: 12 Apr 1999
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English