A modal parameterization-based aero-structural integrated optimization method for wind turbine blade design

As the core component of a wind power system, the blade directly affects turbine energy capture and structural reliability. Owing to its large scale and complex three-dimensional geometry, achieving coordinated aerodynamic-structural design remains challenging. Conventional optimization methods usually optimize the aerodynamic shape first and then the structural layout, or conduct optimization only at local sectional levels, making global coordination difficult. To address this issue, this study proposes a modal-parameterization-based integrated aerodynamic-structural optimization method for wind turbine blades. The method reduces the dimensionality of the design variables and enables a unified representation and optimization of aerodynamic and structural performance across the entire blade. Within an NSGA-II multi-objective optimization framework, aerodynamic-oriented, structural-oriented, and compromise-oriented blades are obtained. The results show that the aerodynamic-oriented blade increases the peak power coefficient from 0.462 to 0.469 and improves power output by up to approximately 110 kW at wind speeds of 10−11 m/s. The structural-oriented blade reduces tip displacement by 18.5%, while the compromise-oriented blade maintains a power coefficient of approximately 0.468 and reduces tip displacement by 8.8%.