Aerodynamic Design and Performance Analysis of a Micro-Scale Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blades along with endplate addition through multi-fidelity computational fluid dynamics tools

The transition toward renewable energy sources has positioned wind energy as a critical technology for achieving global carbon neutrality targets. While large-scale wind farms dominate current installations, micro-scale horizontal-axis wind turbines present significant potential for distributed energy generation in remote and rural areas. This study presents a comprehensive methodology for designing micro-scale wind turbine blades through comparative analysis of three computational approaches: classical Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT), QBlade software, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, selecting the designing methodology based on a trade - off between accuracy and computational cost. A numerical campaign on airfoil assessment was conducted to identify optimal blade geometries, with performance evaluated based on power coefficient distribution, peak power output, and cut-in wind speed. The investigation reveals that CFD simulations predict 23.34% higher power coefficients at peak compared to BEMT and 22.46% compared to QBlade due to three-dimensional effects including rotational stall delay. The addition of endplates to the optimized blade design demonstrates significant improvements in performance. This multi-fidelity approach provides a robust framework for micro-scale wind turbine design, balancing computational efficiency with accuracy requirements, and studies the impact of adding endplates.