This article presents a simplified, integrated method for design studies of blades for offshore wind turbines. The method applies to variable speed horizontal axis wind turbines with pitch control, and allows designing the rotor blades based on a very limited set of input parameters. The purpose of the method is to allow parametric studies of different design configurations of the rotor at a reasonable effort. The resulting wind turbine models are at a level of detail suitable for preliminary design considerations using e.g. aero-elastic simulations in the time domain. The aerodynamic design is based on blade element momentum (BEM) considerations using a distribution of 2D airfoil characteristics. The structural design of the blades is based on aerodynamic forces calculated from a small number of load cases. The design procedure is facilitated by using simplified cross-section definitions and iterative approaches. The resulting blade designs are shown to compare well with data from available turbine models.

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