Design and Verification of the Risø-B1 Airfoil Family for Wind Turbines

This paper presents the design and experimental verification of the Risø-B1 airfoil family for MW-size wind turbines with variable speed and pitch control. Seven airfoils were designed with thickness-to-chord ratios between 15% and 53% to cover the entire span of a wind turbine blade. The airfoils were designed to have high maximum lift and high design lift to allow a slender flexible blade while maintaining high aerodynamic efficiency. The design was carried out with a Risø in-house multi disciplinary optimization tool. Wind tunnel testing was done for Risø-B1-18 and Risø-B1-24 in the VELUX wind tunnel, Denmark, at a Reynolds number of 1.6×106. For both airfoils the predicted target characteristics were met. Results for Risø-B1-18 showed a maximum lift coefficient of 1.64. A standard case of zigzag tape leading edge roughness caused a drop in maximum lift of only 3.7%. Cases of more severe roughness caused reductions in maximum lift between 12% and 27%. Results for the Risø-B1-24 airfoil showed a maximum lift coefficient of 1.62. The standard case leading edge roughness caused a drop in maximum lift of 7.4%. Vortex generators and Gurney flaps in combination could increase maximum lift up to 2.2 (32%).