The thesis is focused on designing a tip-region airfoil for a multi-MW wind turbine. It is approached with the objective of optimizing the geometry of the airfoil for the best trade-off between aero-acoustics and aerodynamic requirements. Using the wind turbine noise prediction t
...
The thesis is focused on designing a tip-region airfoil for a multi-MW wind turbine. It is approached with the objective of optimizing the geometry of the airfoil for the best trade-off between aero-acoustics and aerodynamic requirements. Using the wind turbine noise prediction tool SILANT it is established that trailing edge noise is the most dominant noise source. Reduction of airfoil self-noise should therefore focus on this noise mechanism. A modified version of the semi-empirical aero-acoustic prediction code by Brooks, Pope and Marcolini is used to compute this trailing edge noise. The panel code RFOIL is used for the boundary layer computations as well as the generation of the aerodynamic polars. A quality assessment of both codes is performed based on aerodynamic and acoustic wind tunnel measurements acquired by the Institut für Aerodynamik und Gasdynamik on the NACA 643-418 airfoil. The multi-objective optimization is executed using the genetic algorithm NSGA-II. The airfoil parameterization that is used is the Class Shape Transformation (CST) method by Kulfan. The results of the optimization are captured in the Pareto front and six individuals are assessed thoroughly. It is found that airfoils can be designed that fulfill all the aerodynamic requirements. Acoustically, only marginal differences can be observed and further research should be conducted on the topic.