As the basic blade component, the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance of an airfoil significantly influences the overall aerodynamic efficiency and noise characteristics of offshore wind turbines. However, due to the trade-off between aerodynamic efficiency and noise reduction, achieving both high aerodynamic efficiency and low noise is challenging. To address this issue, this paper employs a solver to evaluate both the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performances of the airfoil, which is based on the XFOIL, Amiet's theory, and the wall-pressure spectrum model. Moreover, a multi-objective optimization framework combining the Light Gradient Boosting Machine algorithm with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm III was proposed in order to get a quick design. The solver and the framework were applied to optimize the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) model NACA0012 airfoil, i.e., simultaneously enhancing the lift-to-drag ratio and reducing trailing-edge noise. The optimized airfoils showed significant improvements: a 26.04%–62.52% increase in the lift-to-drag ratio and a 0.68–2.07 dB reduction in the overall sound pressure level compared to the NACA0012 airfoil.
Lu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.