Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Optimal design of protuberant blades for small variable-speed

horizontal axis wind turbine-experiments and simulations
Chang-Chi Huang a, Chi-Jeng Bai b, Y.C. Shiah a, *, Yu-Jen Chen a
a
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC
b
Wind Power Technology Center, China Steel Co., No. 1, Chung Kang Rd., Hsiao Kang, Kaohsiung 81233, Taiwan, ROC

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In our previous study, it has been shown that the use of protuberances covering the whole leading edges
Received 10 May 2016 of B-blades will enhance the performance of horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) under low speed
Received in revised form rotations. However, a great loss of performance shall occur after a critical tip speed ratio is reached. The
30 August 2016
research aims to optimize the protuberance design of HAWT blades for the system to gain optimal
Accepted 16 September 2016
performance under low speed rotations, whereas no significant drop of performance happens at high tip
speed ratios. The optimization study was performed not only for baseline blades but also for those
designed by the blade element momentum theory. For verifications, wind tunnel experiments were
Keywords:
Small variable-speed HAWT
carried out to provide comparative data; additionally, numerical simulations were also conducted to
Optimization of leading-edge protuberances further visualize the flow fields. The results show that the optimal leading-edge protuberances would
significantly increase the HAWT performance under low speed rotations, yet no serious performance
payback occurs at high tip speed ratios.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction amplitude with changes of aerodynamic forces and moments. Later,

Humpback whale has a couple of long, narrow and thin flippers,
giving exceptional capability to make acrobatic maneuvers in order
to pursuit preys. Typically, its flippers are characterized by large
protuberances at their leading edge, which have been shown to
effectively improve the aerodynamic performance of the wing-like
flippers in the stall region [1]. Recently, this concept has been
applied to the design of micro air vehicles, unmanned aerial vehi-
cles [2], etc.
The first hydrodynamic study of humpback whale flippers was
performed by Fish and Battle [3], treating the cross-section as an
airfoil. Further, Miklosovic et al. [1] experimented on the wing-like
flipper with leading-edge protuberances (LE-prots) and proved that
hydrodynamic stall would be effectively delayed with increasing
lift and decreasing drag. Johari et al. [4] experimentally investigated
the aerodynamic loading of LE-prots wing (NACA 634-021 airfoil
profile) with aspect ratio (AR) of 2, having various tubercle ampli-
tudes and span-wise wavelengths. They concluded that the LE-
prots wing had delayed stall mostly affected by tubercle
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ycshiah@mail.ncku.edu.tw (Y.C. Shiah).
Miklosovic et al. [5] measured the aerodynamic loading on full-
span and semi-span models with LE-prots by wind tunnel experi-
ments. They found that the trends of lift coefficient for all models
remained about the same before stall. After stall occurred, the full-
span model had substantial loss in lift accompanied by an increase
of drag, whereas the semi-span model had an increase of lift. More
recently, Guerreiro and Sousa [6] improved the aerodynamic per-
formance of micro air vehicle (MAV) by using LE-prots. Most of the
previous studies have shown that the aerodynamic performance of
LE-prots wings can be improved for post-stall angles of attack,
while the aerodynamic performance is retained before stall.
The aforementioned studies lead to our motivation to improve
the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine in the stall region.
Zhang and Wu [7] observed the flow phenomenon on the suction
side of NREL PHASE VI turbine blade with LE-prots using compu-
tational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The NREL PHASE VI turbine
is a constant-speed HAWT system with stall occurring at high wind
speeds. It was shown that the mechanical torque of LE-prots blades
had significant improvement at high wind speed. Also, Bai et al. [8]
simulated the thrust forces of vertical axial wind turbine (VAWT)
blade with and without LE-prots. They concluded that both
maximum and minimum thrust forces were reduced for pro-
tuberances with increased wave amplitude and decreased

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.09.100
0360-5442/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167
List of symbols
Ab turbine blade swept area
Aw cross section of wind tunnel test section
b blade length
c chord length
Cl lift coefficient
Cd drag coefficient
Cp power coefficient
DOFp factor's degree of freedom
la non-dimensional wave amplitudes
lw non-dimensional wavelengths
lp percentages of protuberance span
n number of experiments
Nb number of blade
OA orthogonal array
Prated rated wind speed
SSp factor sum of square
wavelength.
In our previous study [9], the aerodynamic performances of
baseline turbine blades (abbreviated as B-blades) and the blades
designed by the blade element momentum theory (abbreviated as
BEMT-blades) were measured by wind tunnel experiments. The
results showed that serious stall of B-blades could occur under any
unfavorable operating conditions. Despite the acquiring of optimal
efficiency at the design point for BEMT-blades, stall still occurred at
low rotational speeds (or low tip speed ratios). To enhance the
aerodynamic performance of small-scale HAWT at low tip speed
ratios, Huang et al. [10] employed sinusoidal protuberances with
various amplitudes and frequencies onto the full leading edges of
untwisted, un-tapered B-blades of small-scale HAWT. The test re-
sults showed that the use of LE-prots would increase mechanical
torques and thus enhance the HAWT performance at low wind
speeds (or low tip speed ratios); however, the performance would
deteriorate at higher wind speeds. For this, the present work was
motivated to make optimal design of LE-prots for both B-blades and
BEMT-blades of small-scale variable-speed HAWT such that the
performance gain would sustain for a wider range of wind speeds. It
needs to be emphasized that the original design by Huang et al. [10]
is mainly focused on the choice of favorable wave amplitudes and
wavelength for the protuberances of baseline blades. In contrast,
the present design stresses the optimal design of protuberances
applied onto only a part of leading edges of BEMT-blades so as to
acquire better mechanical torque at low wind speeds, yet no sig-
nificant performance payback occurs at high wind speeds.
Since development of a complete wind turbine system consists
of many sub-systems plus the cost analysis, the present research is
very unlikely to include all details as a complete study. Among
them, this article targets the design of turbine blades, which is the
dominant one responsible for the performance outcome of the
whole HAWT system. In this work, sinusoidal protuberances are
applied to only a part of leading edges of blades using airfoil
SD8000. To determine optimal parameters of LE-prots, Taguchi
method is used that has the advantage of employing the minimum
number of experimental trials. First, wind tunnel experiments were
carried out for the models of B-blades w/ and w/o full sinusoidal LE-
prots to provide database of aerodynamic performances for CFD
simulations to compare. When verified from the comparisons, the
CFD simulations were applied to model the effects of sinusoidal LE-
prots with three controlling factors, namely the wave amplitude,
1157
S/N signal-to-noise ratio
R radius of blade
Vrated rated wind speed
Varp factor variance
Varε error variance
yþ non-dimensional wall distance
Tm resulting torque
V uniform wind speed
l tip speed ratio
ld design tip speed ratio
r air density
a angle of attack
ad design angle of attack
u rotational speed
zp level number of factor p
h mean total average of S/N ratios
hPk average of S/N ratios of p factor in k level
the wavelength, and the span-percentage of protuberance.
Sequentially, the simulated results were used for optimizing the
protuberance design via an analysis of orthogonal array (OA) by
Taguchi Method, a well known methodology used for optimization.
Next, the optimal design of LE-prots was further applied to BEMT-
blades. Also, both simulations and wind tunnel experiments were
conducted for the optimized models. The results show that the
optimal models give improved power coefficients for most wind
speeds, while only a minor loss of performance is exhibited at
relatively higher wind speeds. From this, it is shown that the
optimal design of B-blades and BEMT-blades is very ideal to be
applied to variable-speed HAWT. For the issue of practical feasi-
bility, the present design actually posts no extra difficulty on the
usual design of BEMT, while the Cp values may be efficiently
enhanced for low tip speed ratios.
2. Turbine blade models
This section provides a general description of the blade models
to be investigated in this paper; details regarding CFD simulations,
experiments, and the optimization analysis will be elaborated in
each separate section, respectively.
Fig. 1 shows the five models for the present optimization study.
Model_1 is the plain type of B-blades, used to provide performance
data as a comparative platform; Model_2 is the protuberant model,
giving the best performance outcome among all cases with
different combinations of three control factors, i.e. non-
dimensional wavelength (la≡La/c), non-dimensional wave-ampli-
tude (lw≡Lw/R), and span-percentage of protuberance (lp≡Lp/b).
Model_3 is the optimal model of B-blades with all controlling fac-
tors optimized. Mode_4 and Model_5 are BEMT-blades of the plain
type and the one with optimal LE-prots, respectively.
All models have a mean chord of c ¼ 6 cm and the radius of
rotation R ¼ 0.35 m. First, the aerodynamic performances of 25 sets
of protuberant blades were simulated using Fluent™ for different
combinations of lw, la, and lp to provide data for later optimization
analysis. Model_2 is the one yielding the best performance
outcome among the 25 sets of sample protuberant models. After a
complete optimization analysis, the optimal parameters of Model_3
were obtained. For verifications, wind tunnel experiments were
carried out for Mode_1~Model_3 (Fig. 2) to characterize their per-
formances for comparison with CFD simulations. Model_3 is the
1158 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167

c=6cm
La

R=0.35m

b
Lw

Lp
r

8cm

Model_1 Model_2 Model_3 Model_4 Model_5

Fig. 1. Design of the models for tests and simulations.

Fig. 2. Wind tunnel tests of Mode_1~Model_3.

baseline model employing the optimized parameters of LE-prots. Table 2

Also, both CFD simulations and experiments were performed to Geometric parameters of BEMT-blades.

verify all results. Section r (m) c (m) qp (degree)

Following the optimization study for the models of B-blades, the 1 0.08 0.060 0
obtained optimal parameters were also applied onto the BEMT- 2 0.11 0.091 21.8
blades (Model_5) to test its performance gain when compared 3 0.14 0.108 17.2
with its plain type, i.e. Model_4. Table 1 lists the five initial design 4 0.17 0.091 14.4
5 0.20 0.079 12.5
parameters needed to define the layout of BEMT-blades [11,12],
6 0.23 0.069 10.3
namely (1) rated power (Prated), (2) rated wind speed (Vrated), (3) 7 0.26 0.062 8.6
design tip-speed ratio (ld), (4) number of blades (Nb), and (5) 8 0.29 0.056 7.3
design angle of attack (ad). Shown in Table 2 are the geometric 9 0.32 0.051 6.2
parameters of the BEMT-blades for Model_4 and Model_5. 10 0.35 0.046 5.2

3. Experiments and CFD simulations

experiments, a parametric study of different designs was con-
ducted by CFD simulations, producing data for the optimum anal-
The test models were experimented in the wind tunnel to
ysis by Taguchi Method. Before elaboration of the optimum
provide data for verifying our simulations. With the verifications by
analysis, the experimental setups and the process of CFD simula-
tions are described first as follows.
Table 1
Initial design parameters of BEMT-blades.
3.1. Experimental setups
Initial design values Units Values

Rated power Watt 200 Experiments were performed in an open-type wind tunnel with
Rated wind speed m/s 12 a test section dimensioned by 914 mm (height)  4440 mm
Design tip speed ratio 4.5 (length)  1220 mm (width). For the present case, the area ratio,
Number of blades 3 defined by the ratio of the swept area of turbine blade to the cross
Design angle of attack degree 6
section area of wind tunnel, is about 34%. According to [13], no
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167 1159

Fig. 3. Experimental setups for testing the HAWT system in wind tunnel.

significant deviation of power coefficient is present for the blockage

effect below 6. Since the present study targets performance
improvement for low tip speed ratios (l  5), the blockage effect
was not taken into account in this study.
Fig. 3 schematically depicts the experimental setups for testing
the HAWT system at the test section of the wind tunnel.
A torque transducer was mounted on the main shaft between
the turbine blade and the generator in order to measure the output
of mechanical torque used to determine the corresponding power
coefficient. Additionally, high current DC electronic load module
(DCELM) was used as a source of load adjustment to obtain various
currents and voltages at different rotational speeds. Hence, signals
of rotational speeds need to be detected by a proximity switch.
Since only the DC signal was analyzed in the DCELM, a diode bridge
circuit was used to convert AC to fluctuating DC. Data acquisitions
of voltage output from the sensors were taken by the National In-
strument (NI) USB-6008 12-bit AD converter. All the output data of
mechanical torques, mechanical powers, power coefficients, volt-
Fig. 4. H-type mesh for modeling the SD8000 airfoil. ages, currents, system efficiencies, wind speeds, and rotational
speeds were collected using the NI LabView.
The equipment was calibrated before each test. The uncertainty
of the torque values under each condition was measured with an
Table 3 error percentage ±2%. Rotational speeds of the turbine blade were
Grid-sensitivity analysis for a ¼ 6 , 10 and Re ¼ 1  105. recorded by a proximity switch, having an accuracy of ±1%,
whereas the wind speeds were measured using a Pitot tube with an
Case CFD simulations Experiment [14]
accuracy ±2%.
No. of cells Cl Cd Cl Cd

a ¼ 6
1 14500 0.721 0.0305 0.830 0.0192 3.2. Numerical simulations
2 28500 0.783 0.0266
3 40600 0.802 0.0238 The 2D/3D flow fields were simulated by solving the steady-
4 58300 0.806 0.0238 state incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the
5 72000 0.803 0.0236
Shear-Stress Transport (SST) k-u turbulence model for all cases.
Case CFD simulations Experiment [14] As reported by Krogstad and Lund [14], the best yþ value for the
Grid size Cl Cd Cl Cd turbulence model can be found by 2D simulations in order to
a ¼ 10 reduce the number of grid points, yet the yþ value is still applicable
1 14500 0.947 0.0503 1.100 0.0460 to 3D cases. This approach was also applied to our simulations. At
2 28500 0.988 0.0451 beginning, the yþ value around the 2D airfoil and 3D turbine blade
3 40600 1.069 0.0423 was targeted on unity for generating the boundary layer. However,
4 58300 1.072 0.0423
the yþ value did not maintain at this value in the subsequent
5 72000 1.070 0.0422
analysis, where a distribution of 0.8e3 was found due to the highly
curved surface. At any rate for yþ smaller than 3, the simulation is
valid for using the SST model. Fig. 4 shows the 2D grid system of the
1160 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167

Fig. 5. Modeling mesh for 3D turbine blades.

Fig. 6. Results of the SD8000 airfoil for Cl and Cd when Re ¼ 1  105.

Fig. 8. Modeling of the baseline blades with leading-edge protuberances.

Fig. 7. Power coefficient of Model_1 at V ¼ 10 m/s.
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167
Fig. 9. Power coefficients of the full protuberance model with la ¼ 0.04, lw ¼ 0.404.
Fig. 10. Power coefficient of the full protuberance model with la ¼ 0.04, lw ¼ 0.145.
Fig. 11. Flowchart of the analysis by Taguchi Method.
1161
Table 4
Control factors and the level values.
Factor Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
A la 0.083 0.125 0.166 0.208 0.250
B lw 1/4 1/8 1/12 1/16 1/20
C lp 25.0% 37.5% 50.0% 62.5% 75.0%
computational domain generated by Pointwise™. As shown in
Fig. 4, modeling of the flow field around the airfoil took the domain
region with a downstream distance of 10 times the chord length, an
upstream distance of 3 times the chord length, and a height of 7
times the chord length.
Boundary conditions for the 2D simulation domain included the
inlet velocity, outlet pressure, periodic boundary, and the wall
condition. H-type mesh was used that had structured grids around
the airfoil in order to fix the distance between the wall surface and
the first grid. Additionally, grid independence was ensured such
that the computed results were insensitive to grids with different
sizes. Increasing number of cells with different grid sizes by 14500,
28500, 40600, 58300, and 72000 cells were used for the grid in-
dependence study and compared with the experimental data of
wind tunnel tests [15]. Table 3 shows the comparison between the
numerical solutions obtained for a ¼ 6 , 10 and Re ¼ 1  105. To
have a balanced selection between accuracy and efficiency,
40600 cells were applied for the 2D simulations.
For the 3D simulations, moving reference frame was used to
simulate the rotation condition of blade. The outer domain is a
cylindrical shape with radius equal to 7R, the downwind sub-region
with length size equaling 10R, and the upwind sub-region with
length size equaling 1.5R. Here, by making use of the periodic
condition, only one turbine blade was simulated. Similarly, the 3D
grids were also created by Pointwise™, where the domain was
divided into three parts. The first part was to model the boundary
layer flow around the airfoil, whose yþ value was chosen to be
unity like the 2D case. The second part was for the inner flow using
unstructured grids, taking 2156763 triangle elements. Finally, the
last part modeled the outer region extending from the four sides of
the inner flow by structured grids. Total cell number for the 3D
simulations was 3106500 elements (Fig. 5).
3.3. Verifications of numerical simulations
In order to verify our CFD simulations, analysis of the airfoil for
its lift and drag coefficients were conducted first. Next, the power
coefficients of B-blades were also computed using the CFD simu-
lations from the boundary layer construction of airfoil. All results
were compared with experimental data.
Shown in Fig. 6 are the computed lift and drag coefficients,
plotted as functions of a for Re ¼ 1  105.
Also, all experimental data recorded from the wind tunnel ex-
periments are shown in Fig. 6 for comparisons. Experimental data
of the Cp distributions as a function of various tip speed ratios at
V ¼ 10 m/s were determined by t-distribution, while the experi-
mental errors were calculated within 5%. Clearly, it can be seen that
the simulations agree pretty well with the experimental data for
a ¼ 6 ~10 . Another interesting phenomenon to note is the
nonlinearity of Cl for a ¼ 1 e2 ; in addition, the simulations have
successfully captured the stall angle. In the stall region a ¼ 11 e13 ,
the simulations tend to yield smaller values as compared with the
experimental data; nevertheless, the trend is still consistent. Also,
the slight off-accuracy of Cd for a ¼ 3 e9 is observed, where its
maximum error is about 12%. As a whole in general, all simulated
data are in satisfactory agreements with the experimental data.
1162 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167

Table 5
Analysis for power coefficient by Taguchi Method.

Case Level Tip speed ratio (l) Ave. Cp MSD S/N

A B C 1.833 2.199 2.566 2.932 3.299 3.665 4.032 4.398 4.765 5.131

1 1 1 1 0.010 0.019 0.042 0.066 0.100 0.150 0.208 0.259 0.289 0.304 0.145 1444.634 31.598
2 1 2 2 0.011 0.020 0.040 0.070 0.113 0.166 0.228 0.278 0.302 0.299 0.153 1197.348 30.782
3 1 3 3 0.017 0.034 0.064 0.108 0.150 0.200 0.252 0.285 0.294 0.274 0.168 462.091 26.647
4 1 4 4 0.027 0.048 0.079 0.119 0.160 0.207 0.228 0.263 0.269 0.265 0.167 217.048 23.366
5 1 5 5 0.028 0.045 0.073 0.102 0.133 0.159 0.189 0.197 0.192 0.204 0.132 225.111 23.524
6 2 1 2 0.011 0.022 0.034 0.059 0.104 0.161 0.214 0.264 0.337 0.297 0.150 1157.390 30.635
7 2 2 3 0.017 0.033 0.069 0.096 0.145 0.192 0.249 0.273 0.271 0.260 0.160 482.800 26.838
8 2 3 4 0.030 0.053 0.083 0.123 0.163 0.199 0.223 0.241 0.247 0.238 0.160 181.959 22.600
9 2 4 5 0.031 0.045 0.077 0.106 0.139 0.166 0.187 0.191 0.194 0.192 0.133 197.988 22.966
10 2 5 1 0.010 0.020 0.042 0.074 0.112 0.157 0.214 0.268 0.294 0.297 0.149 1289.019 31.103
11 3 1 3 0.016 0.028 0.048 0.094 0.143 0.156 0.236 0.271 0.272 0.272 0.154 581.900 27.648
12 3 2 4 0.031 0.055 0.086 0.127 0.163 0.204 0.236 0.269 0.273 0.239 0.168 171.043 ¡22.331
13 3 3 5 0.031 0.058 0.084 0.112 0.144 0.182 0.199 0.203 0.216 0.189 0.142 172.767 22.375
14 3 4 1 0.013 0.019 0.041 0.072 0.109 0.158 0.212 0.265 0.294 0.295 0.148 938.873 29.726
15 3 5 2 0.013 0.025 0.050 0.086 0.127 0.179 0.226 0.275 0.284 0.277 0.154 794.154 28.999
16 4 1 4 0.022 0.043 0.075 0.113 0.159 0.188 0.196 0.198 0.209 0.222 0.143 293.235 24.672
17 4 2 5 0.027 0.048 0.077 0.111 0.136 0.178 0.175 0.181 0.189 0.178 0.130 225.914 23.539
18 4 3 1 0.010 0.023 0.042 0.071 0.107 0.147 0.214 0.261 0.296 0.297 0.147 1341.430 31.276
19 4 4 2 0.016 0.030 0.053 0.081 0.118 0.165 0.216 0.267 0.285 0.274 0.150 563.014 27.505
20 4 5 3 0.020 0.037 0.063 0.091 0.127 0.171 0.227 0.251 0.254 0.237 0.148 370.012 25.682
21 5 1 5 0.021 0.034 0.063 0.099 0.124 0.156 0.179 0.192 0.186 0.189 0.124 376.555 25.758
22 5 2 1 0.014 0.025 0.047 0.071 0.112 0.167 0.192 0.226 0.241 0.237 0.133 750.995 28.756
23 5 3 2 0.018 0.030 0.054 0.082 0.119 0.165 0.188 0.227 0.236 0.226 0.134 502.473 27.011
24 5 4 3 0.024 0.044 0.072 0.105 0.120 0.174 0.193 0.220 0.220 0.233 0.140 279.739 24.468
25 5 5 4 0.023 0.038 0.057 0.085 0.116 0.148 0.166 0.181 0.181 0.192 0.119 324.763 25.116
Ave. 0.020 0.035 0.061 0.093 0.130 0.172 0.210 0.240 0.253 0.247

Note: Values in boldface correspond to the optimal case with the best power coefficient.

Fig. 12. The S/N ratio for each set of simulated torque.

Since the major contribution to Cp is made by Cl, the slight off- that all simulated values are in excellent agreements with the
accuracy of Cd will not significantly affect our later simulations experimental data for u ¼ 500 rpme1400 rpm (l ¼ 1.8e5). Despite
for 3D turbine blades. the agreements of results, one might still hold a conservative
Fig. 7 plots the resulting power coefficients of manner about the modeling of B-blades with LE-prots.
Model_1 at V ¼ 10 m/s. Once again, to our satisfactions, it turns out To be more confirmative, CFD simulations were also conducted
for the other two B-blades (Fig. 8) studied by Huang et al. [10].
Likewise, both simulations and experiments were carried out.
Table 6
Shown in Fig. 9 are plots of Cp for the protuberant model with
Results of the variance analysis of Cp. la ¼ 0.04, lw ¼ 0.404.
Corresponding Cp data of the other model with la ¼ 0.04,
Factor SS DOF Var F Confidence Significant
lw ¼ 0.145 are plotted in Fig. 10. As can be observed from these plots,
A 3.44 4 0.86 No our CFD simulations are shown to yield very reliable results as
B 18.06 4 4.51 5.26 93.15% Yes
compared with experiments. With confirmation of our CFD simu-
C 193.32 4 48.33 56.27 99.91% Yes
error 3.44 4 0.86 lations, the study of optimization can be continued, and this pro-
Total 214.81 12 53.70 cess will be elaborated next. Before details of the optimization are
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167 1163

Table 7
Comparison of Cp for Model_1~Model_3.

Model type Tip speed ratio (l) MSD S/N (dB)

1.833 2.199 2.566 2.932 3.299 3.665 4.032 4.398 4.765 5.131

Model_1 0.010 0.019 0.036 0.067 0.106 0.159 0.221 0.268 0.292 0.314 1395.21 31.446
Model_2 0.031 0.055 0.086 0.127 0.163 0.204 0.236 0.269 0.273 0.239 171.043 22.331
Model_3 0.033 0.056 0.088 0.131 0.172 0.204 0.239 0.265 0.267 0.268 155.346 21.913

presented, the optimization methodology is outlined first.

4. Optimization of protuberance parameters

Taguchi Method was applied to seek the optimal combination of

parameters from the database provided by our CFD simulations.
This optimization analysis was first performed for the B-blades, and
then the optimal parameters were applied to the BEMT-blades. For
a better understanding of how to manage the simulation database,
a brief review of Taguchi Method is given first.

4.1. Taguchi Method

Taguchi Method is a powerful tool for optimization of multi-

parameter problems. It can estimate effects of factors on the
mean and variation of response based on the orthogonal array (OA),
which allows independent investigation of each effect and reduce
the time/cost connected with experiment or numerical simulation.
Fig. 14. Power coefficients of protuberant models.
Fig. 11 is the analysis flowchart, which can be generalized into five
steps. This method can provide signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio as the
optimization objective to quantify the performance values of the
selected control factors. Ru
The objective of the present study is to obtain the maximum
l¼ ; (2)
V
power coefficient, calculated by the resulting torque as follows:
where u is from 500 rpm to 1400 rpm for V ¼ 10 m/s.
Tm u As shown in Fig. 1, three control factors are involved, for each of
Cp ¼ 1 (1) which there are five levels. Table 4 lists the control factors and their
2 rpR2 V 3
respective levels.
The tip speed ratio is written as When all possible cases in Table 4 are considered, there will be
125 models to be investigated. In order to reduce computational
time, an orthogonal array was formed to sort out interactions
among factors for determining the influence on product quality.

4.2. Signal-to-noise ratio

The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is used to seek which levels of

control factors are favorable. In order to sort out optimal parame-
ters, the analysis of quality characteristics was used for acquiring
the maximum mechanical torque and power coefficient for
different rotational speeds at the wind speed of 10 m/s. Thus, their
S/N ratios are defined by

S=N ¼ 10 logðMSDÞdB (3)

where MSD is the mean square deviation indicating the average

quality loss. The MSD is defined by
Pn 1
i¼1 y2
MSD ¼ i
; (4)
n

where n is the number of experiments; yi is the i-th quality char-

Fig. 13. Comparison of Cp for Model_1~Model_3. acteristics of experiment.
1164 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167

Fig. 15. Surface streamlines of Model_1 and Model_3.

Table 8
Comparison of Cp for BEMT-blades.

Model type Tip speed ratios (l)

1.833 2.199 2.566 2.932 3.299 3.665 4.032 4.398 4.765 5.131

Model_4 0.125 0.169 0.220 0.294 0.388 0.422 0.439 0.443 0.455 0.455
Model_5 0.134 0.185 0.244 0.303 0.362 0.418 0.415 0.413 0.400 0.388

4.3. Analysis of variance and confirmation run analysis has applied F-test with F defined by

One reliable way to evaluate sampling errors is the variance Varp

analysis, by which each effect of a factor can be assessed. Here, the F¼ : (5)
Vare
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167 1165

Fig. 16. Surface streamlines of Model_4 and Model_5.

In Eq. (5), Varp is the factor variance and Vare the error variance.
From its definition, the factor variance is given by DOFP ¼ LP  1; (7b)

SSp where n is the number of experiments, zP is the level number of

Varp ¼ ; (6) factor p, h is the mean total average of S/N ratios, and hPk is the
DOFp
average of S/N ratios of factor p in level k. Once the variance analysis
where SSP is the factor's sum of square and DOFP represents the is completed, another confirmation run is needed to compare the
factor's degree of freedom. The definitions of SSP and DOFP are outcomes with the Taguchi analysis for confirmation of the optimal
design.
zP
n X
SSP ¼ ðhPk  hÞ2 ; (7a) 5. Analysis of Cp by Taguchi Method
zP K¼1

First, the optimization analysis is targeted on seeking optimal

1166 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167
Fig. 17. Wind tunnel test of BEMT-blades.
Fig. 18. Comparisons of the Cp values for BEMT-models.
parameters of the LE-prots for an optimum design of protuberant B-
blades. The twenty-five sets of power coefficients obtained for
Model_1 ~ Model_3 are tabulated in Table 5, where the tip speed
ratios are for u ¼ 500 rpme1400 rpm with an increment of
100 rpm. Also displayed in the table are the corresponding signal
noises of all cases. From the outputs, it is clear that Case 12 is the
best among all, having the maximum Cp ¼ 0.273 at l ¼ 4.765. Using
the characteristic of “the-bigger-the-better”, one may sort out the
optimal parameters.
As a result of substituting all data in Table 5 into Eq. (3), one may
obtain the S/N ratios of power coefficients, plotted in Fig. 12. From
this S/N ratio graph, one may clearly see the dominant order of the
three, given by lp, lw, and la. Hence, as a result of picking the
maximum S/N ratio of levels for each control factor, the optimal
parameters are determined to be lp ¼ 62.5%, lw ¼ 1/16, and
la ¼ 0.166, which defines the B-blades with optimized pro-
tuberances (Model_3 in Fig. 1) at different wind speeds. To ensure
the accuracy of our Taguchi analysis, its variance analysis and
confirmation run were also performed. The results are demon-
strated next.
As a post-process, variance analysis of the data obtained pre-
viously was carried out to calculate values of SS and Var using Eqs.
(6) and 7(a)e7(b). First, the analysis was performed to get the
variance of Cp values for the rotational speed 0e1400 rpm at
V ¼ 10 m/s. The preliminary analysis of variance was carried out to
yield values as listed in Table 6. For a less insignificant factor, its
variance is actually derived from simulation errors. From the
analysis, it turns out that la has the least influence on the perfor-
mance. As aforementioned, F-test was used for evaluating the effect
of each factor; greater F-value implies a heavier influence. With the
least influencing factor (Factor A for amplitude) dropped out, the F-
test results of the others and their confidence values are also shown
in Table 6.
For further verifications of the above optimization analysis, CFD
simulations were conducted for the smooth B-blades (Model_1),
Case 12 (Model_2), and also the optimal B-blades (Model_3). Like in
the previous analysis, simulations were carried out first to give the
resulting torques, by which the corresponding power coefficients
were calculated accordingly. Table 7 lists the simulated Cp values.
From the table, it can be seen that the optimized LE-prots may
improve the power coefficient for l  4.032 (rotation speeds under
1100 rpm); however, the optimal model does not gain performance
at higher rotational speeds.
6. Comparisons of Cp with experimental data
6.1. Baseline models
For verifications of our CFD simulations, Model_1~Model_3
were also experimented in the wind tunnel to provide comparison
data. Fig. 13 plots the experimental data of power coefficients along
with the simulation results. Indeed, the simulations turn out to be
in excellent agreements with all measured data. Interestingly, one
may spot the critical tip speed ratio (l ¼ 4.398), after which the
power coefficient starts to drop for Model_2 and Model_3.
To have an insight into this phenomenon, the Cp calculated for
cases with the parameters (la ¼ 0.166c, lw ¼ R/16, and lp ¼ 25%, 50%,
75%, and 100%) are plotted as a function of l in Fig. 14. As can be
observed from the comparison shown in this figure, although LE-
prots may greatly enhance Cp at low tip speed ratios, the perfor-
mance will drop fast at high speed ratios when full protuberance
(lp ¼ 100%) is applied. This is mainly due to the disturbance of flow
field on most blade surfaces, where no stall occurs at high rotation
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Energy 115 (2016) 1156e1167
speeds. However, under low speed rotations, stall shall take place
near the root and thus, LE-prots may help increase the perfor-
mance. At this point, it is learned that more favorable use of LE-
prots is the case when proper lp is employed.
For visualizing the flow difference between Model_1 and
Model_3, their surface streamlines are plotted in Fig. 15 for the
sampling tip speed ratios 1.833, 3.55, and 5.236. It can be seen that
the most obvious difference of flows between Model_1 and
Model_3 is the presence of vortices accumulated at the protuber-
ance regions. For this, additional pressure drop on the upper blade
surface occurs, resulting in extra torque. When the speed ratio is
increased, stall area will be reduced. At this moment, accompanied
with the vortices is the presence of unsteady flows leading to
reduction of Cp values.
6.2. BEMT models
From the previous study for B-blades, it has been learned that
the factor la has the least effect on the overall performance. Thus,
one may make a plausible assumption that similar performance
gain can also be obtained for the BEMT-blades when the optimal
parameters of LE-prots are applied. For verifying this, both BEMT
models, i.e. Model_4 and Model_5, were investigated for their Cp
values under different tip speed ratios at V ¼ 10 m/s by simulations,
yielding results listed in Table 8.
The simulations also show that the optimized LE-prots may
enhance the power coefficient at low tip speed ratios (l  2.932),
whereas performance drops shall occur for high l. Fig. 16 shows the
surface streamlines on the both models.
For verifications of our simulations, wind tunnel tests were also
carried out for the both models (Fig. 17) to collect their experi-
mental data of Cp. Comparisons between the simulations and all
measured data for the Cp values of Model_4 and Model_5 are shown
in Fig. 18.
From the comparisons, one may clearly see the agreements
between our simulations and the measured data for both of the
BEMT-models.
7. Conclusive remarks
This article presents a study of the optimal design of sinusoidal
LE-prots on B-blades and BEMT-blades used for small variable-
speed HAWT. Learned from the previous study by Huang et al.
[10], the use of LE-prots covering full blade-spans would improve
the stall phenomenon for B-blades, yet the performance would
drop significantly once the rotation reached a critical speed. Un-
doubtedly, this performance drop at high l will certainly reduce the
average Cp value of a variable-speed HAWT system. This has
motivated the present research to seek an optimal design of sinu-
soidal LE-prots for BEMT-blades under low rotation speeds, yet no
significant drop of Cp is present under high speed rotations. The
previous study [10] was only performed for (un-tapered/un-
twisted) baseline blades with sinusoidal protuberances applied full
leading edges. To improve the design by Huang et al. [10], the
BEMT-blades of small-scale HAWT have employed the sinusoidal
1167
protuberances with optimized parameters applied to only a part of
the leading edges. Before the optimization analysis, CFD simula-
tions were first performed for different combinations of parameters
to obtain a database of Cp values calculated for different l. Using
these data, Taguchi Method was applied to sort out the optimal
parameters of LE-prots with its variance analysis performed. As a
result, it turns out that span-percentage is the dominant factor for
improving the performance and the wave-amplitude has the least
effect. Sequentially, the optimal parameters were determined to be
lp ¼ 62.5%, lw ¼ 1/16, and la ¼ 0.166. Both simulations and experi-
ments were conducted. To our satisfactions, the simulations were
in good agreements with all measured data. Indeed, the present
work has provided an optimal design of sinusoidal LE-prots for
small variable-speed HAWT turbine blades. By this optimal design,
the stall phenomenon at low tip speed ratios can be efficiently
improved, whereas no serious performance loss is present at high
speed ratios.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from
the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (No. 105-2221-E-
006-113).
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