Design Optimization of Wind Turbine Using Fluid Structural Interaction Analysis and Genetic Algorithm

Aerodynamics of wind turbine blade is an important field of research. In the present study, a multi stage optimization process has been evaluated on a baseline wind turbine blade. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are applied as a generative and search procedure to look for optimized design solutions in terms of aerodynamic performance of the airfoil selected for the study. The MatLab Genetic Algorithm toolbox interfaced with Xfoil, an interactive program for the design and analysis of airfoils, was implemented for the profile design optimisation. To analyse the performance of the optimized profile, the ANSYS Fluent toolbox was used to conduct the 3D computational fluid dynamics analysis of a section of the wind turbine blade before and after optimization. The total deformation and Von-Mises stress of the wind turbine blade caused due to Fluid-Structure Interaction is analysed using the ANSYS simulation software.