Optimal spanwise chord and thickness distribution for a Troposkien Darrieus wind turbine

An innovative concept of Troposkien wind turbine blade, characterized by a variable chord and thickness distributions along the blade span, is here presented. The proposed optimal blade configuration is determined through the use of an in-house design code, the so-called WOMBAT algorithm, obtained by combining both an advanced optimization method and a Blade Element-Momentum (BE-M) performance prediction code. The resulting geometry, slightly corrected in order to be easily realizable, shows a consistent increase in the aerodynamic performance with respect to the considered baseline architecture.