Aerodynamic and Structural Design of a Wind Turbine Blade by Using QBlade Software

This work studies the aerodynamic properties and structural model of horizontal-axis wind turbine rotor with capacity of 300 W by using QBlade software. In addition, the critical endurance is also preliminarily evaluated according to IEC 61400-2 standard. The interdependence between of rotor solidity, tip speed ratio, pitch angle, and maximum power coefficient is an important factor to design a small wind turbine rotor for low power application. The configuration of NACA 4412 airfoil is adopted for design and simulation. The performance with different Reynolds numbers, tip speed ratios and airfoils are the key topics to be examined and discussed in detail. The chosen model, after the calculation, is also carried out in this work to verify the simulation results on QBlade software. Simulation results indicate that the hollow blade (no spar) not only reliably satisfies the durable condition but also has the lightest mass (by using E-glass/epoxy composite).