Abstract:

PROPID is a computer program for design and analysis of horizontal axis wind turbine blades.The unique feature of this program lies in its inverse design and analysis capability.In order to show this capacity,a 20kW wind turbine blade,available from NREL's design,was analyzed and re-designed. Significant improvement in the blade performance was achieved.The analyses and researches show that the PROPID program has quite good performance at rotor power calculation,blade geometry dimension design,blade pitch angle design and rotor speed design,etc.It can predict aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine fairly correctly.PROPID is a very practical analysis and design tool for wind turbine blades.It would be greatly useful to improve the design level and to shorten the design period.

Key words: PROPID, inverse design, wind turbine blade, rotor, analysis