Abstract:

High aerodynamic performance is desirable for a horizontal axis wind turbine design.Wind turbine including rotor with complicated structure works in a quite execrable condition,it is unpractical to calculate the aero- dynamic performance with all influence factors considered.In this paper,the effects of various factors including solid- ity,pitch angle,cone angle,tilt angle,yaw angle and blade thickness on the aerodynamic performance of horizontal axis wind turbine rotor were analyzed based on momentum and blade element theory.Such investigation shows that the aerodynamic performance is sensitive to some factors,and others not.Proper parameters can be selected to opti- mize the design of a wind turbine to capture as much energy from wind as possible with low cost.

Key words: aerodynamic performance, influence factor, horizontal axis wind turbine, momentum, blade element