NREL Airfoil Families for Hawts
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January 1995 • NRELfTP-442-7109 NREL Airfoil F es forHAWTs J. L. Tangier D. M. Somers �L.•�I,E!.� �.J' National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 A national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Managed by Midwest Research Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC36-83CH10093 NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, orassumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Available to DOE and DOE contractors from: Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) P.O. Box62 Oak Ridge, TN 37831 Prices available by calling {4 23) 576-8401 Available to the public from: National Technical Information Service {NTIS) U.S. Department of Commerce 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 (703) 487 -4650 #. t.� Printed on paper containing at least 50% wastepaper, including 10% postconsumer waste NRELAirfoil Families for HAWTs J. L. Tangier National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 D. M. Somers Airfoils Incorporated 601 Cricklewood Drive State College, Pennsylvania 16803-2111 ABSTRACT The development of special-purpose airfoils for horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT�) began in 1984 as a joint effort between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), formerly the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), and Airfoils, Incorporated. Since that time seven airfoil families have been designed for various size rotors using the Eppler Airfoil Design and Analysis Code. A general performancerequirement of thenew airfoilfamilies is thatthey exhibit a maximum 1iftcoefficient ( '1,rnaJ which is relatively insensitiveto roughness effects. Theairfoil families address the needs of stall-regulated, variable-pitch, andvariable-rpm wind turbines. For stall-regulated rotors, betterpeak-power controlis achieved through thedesign of tip airfoils that restrain themaximum 1iftcoefficient. Restrainedmaximum coefficient 1ift allows the useof more swept disc area for a given generator size. Also, for stall-regulated rotors, tip airfoils with high thickness are used to accommodate overspeed control devices. For variable-pitch and variable-rpm rotors, tip airfoils having a highmaximum lift coefficientlend themselves to lightweight blades with low solidity.Tip airfoils having low thickness result in less drag for blades having full-span pitch control Annual energy improvements from the NREL airfoil families are projected to be 23% to 35% for stall regulatedturbines, 8% to 20% for variable-pitchturbines, and8% to 10% for variable-rpmturbines. Theimprovement for stall-regulatedturbines has been verified in fieldtests. INTRODUCTION Over the past decade, commonly used airfoilfamilies for horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) have includedthe NACA 44XX,NACA 23XXX,NACA 63XXX, andNASA LS( 1) series airfoils. Allthese airfoils suffer noticeable performancedegradation fromroughness effects resulting from leading-edge contamination. Annual energy losses due to leading-edge roughness are greatest for stall-regulated rotors. The loss is largelyproportional to thereduction in maximumlift coefficient ( <1,maJalong the blade. High blade-root twist helps reduce the loss by keeping the blade's angle-of. attack distnoutionaway from stallwhich delays the onset of '1.max. Roughness also degrades.the.. airfoil's1ift-curve slope andincreases the profile drag which contnoutesto further losses. For stall- 1 regulated rotors, whose angleof attack distributionincreases with wind speed, theannual energy loss istypic ally20% to 30%. Variable-pitchtoward stall would result in similar roughness losses as fixed pitch, stall-regulation,while variable-pitch toward feather would decrease the loss to around 10% at the expenseof the rotor being susceptibleto power spikesin turbulent highwinds. For variable-rpm rotors operating at constant tip-speed ratio and angle of attack distnbution, the loss is minimal at around5% to 10%. To minimize the energy losses due to roughness effects and to develop special pmpose airfoilsfor HAWTs, the National RenewableEnergy Laboratory (NREL ), formerlythe Solar EnergyResearch Institute (SERI), andAirfoils Inc. began a joint airfoil development effort in1984. Results of thiseffort are reported in References 1 and2. Estimated annual energyimprov ements and thecomp onent improvementsfrom the NREL airfoils for stall-regulated , variable-pitch, and variable rpmrotors are shownin Table 1. Table 1. Estimated Annual Energy Improvements from NREL Airfoil Families Roughness Correct Total Turbine Type Insensitive c�,mn Reynolds Low Tip c�,mn Improvement Number Stall-Regulated 10% to 15% 3% to 5% 10% to 15% 23% to 35% Variable-Pitch 5% to 15% 3% to 5% --- 8% to 20% Variable-RPM 5% 3% to 5% --- 8% to 10% By using the NREL airfoils, which are specifically designed for HAWTs, the annual energy production loss due to airfoilroughness effects can be cut in half relativeto previously used aircraft airfoils. Optimizing anairfoil's performance characteristics for the appropriate Reynolds number and thickness provides additional performance enhancement in the range of 3% to 5%. Aircraft airfoils used on wind-turbineblades are often used at a lower Reynolds number than that intended by their designers. In addition, the airfoils are often scaled to a greater thickness which often leads to undesirable performance characteristics. The performance characteristics of the NACA 23XX:X seriesof airfoils,for example, deteriorate quiterapidly with increasing airfoilthickness. Thisproblem is further compounded in the blade root area by combining a low Reynolds number with high thickness. Such a combination makes it difficultto achieve good airfoil performance characteristics. For stall-regulated rotors, further performance enhancement is achieved by usingblade tip airfoils withlow G,maxwhich helps controlpeak rotor power. Thisallows the use of 10% to 15% more swept rotor area for a givengenerator size. Desirable performancecharacteristics for wind-turbine airfoilsdepend on whether themachine is stall regulated, variable-pitch, or variable-rpm. For stall-regulated machines, restrained maximum lift coefficient inthe blade tip regionis desired to passivelycontrol peak rotor power. Thisfeature will also benefit machines withvariable-pitch blades that pitchtoward Stallto control peak power, such as the NedWind 500 kW. Variablepitch machinesthat pitch toward featherto control peak power have the option of using tip airfoils with either highor low maximum lift coefficient depend.i¥g,,�n whether machinethe is designedto operate at high or low rpm. However, pitching toward feather resultsin excessive turbulence-induced peak-power spikes (Reference 3) that create operation and 2 maintainanceproblems. Power spikesare effectivelyeliminated through variable-rotor-rpm operation which absorbs the power spikeswith an increase in rpm The sevenNREL airfoil families,which include over twenty different airfoils, have been designed usingthe Eppler code (References 4 and5) to accommodate the unique operating. requirements of . stall-regulated, variable-pitch, and variable-rpmwind turbines. Most of the existingNREL airfoil familiesaddress the needs of stall-regulatedwind turbines. Efforts currently underway are focusing on tipairfoils for variable-rpmwind turbines. This paper provides a summary of the existingNREL airfoilfamilies and those curr entlybeing designed. NREL AIRFOIL FAMILIES Seven airfoilfamilies consisting of 23 airfoils have beendesigned for various size rotors since1984� The appropriate blade lengthand generator sizefor each airfoilfamily along with thecorresponding airfoilscomprising each familyfrom blade root to tip are shown in Table 2. The airfoil designations starting with theS80 1 andending with the S823 represent thenumerical order in. which the airfoils were designedbetween 1984 and 1993. The"A" designation stands for an improved version of an airfoilbased on wind-tunnel testresults for a similarairfoil. Thethree airfoils havingunderlined bold lettering have undergone comprehensive tests in the Delft University low-turbulence windtunnel. Testresults for these three airfoils are covered inReferences 6, 7, and 8. Five of the airfoil families are designated "thick" (16% to 21 %) to indicate that the tip-region airfoils are thick enough to accommodate overspeed-control aerodynamic devices andto reduce theblade weight. These"thick" airfoilfamilies lendthemselves to stall-regulatedwind turbines. Thetwo airfoilfamilies labeled "thin" (11% to 15%) are more suited to variable-pitch or variable-rpm turbines that use full-span blade. pitch. Greater thicknessis desired for the blade-root airfoilsto accommodate structural and dynamic considerations. The blade-root airfoil thickness falls in the range of 18%