The purpose of this study is to introduce and demonstrate a fully automated process for optimizing the airfoil cross-section of a\r\nvertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT). The objective is to maximize the torque while enforcing typical wind turbine design constraints\r\nsuch as tip speed ratio, solidity, and blade profile. By fixing the tip speed ratio of the wind turbine, there exists an airfoil crosssection\r\nand solidity for which the torque can be maximized, requiring the development of an iterative design system. The design\r\nsystem required to maximize torque incorporates rapid geometry generation and automated hybrid mesh generation tools with\r\nviscous, unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software. The flexibility and automation of the modular design\r\nand simulation system allows for it to easily be coupled with a parallel differential evolution algorithm used to obtain an optimized\r\nblade design that maximizes the efficiency of the wind turbine.
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