Airfoils Characterization by means of CFD Simulations in GRID Environment

The present paper deals with the implementation of a Computational Fluid Dynamics based application for airfoils characterization by means of supercomputing GRID system. Such results are really useful to advance possible profiles solutions for the blades of high-efficiency micro-wind turbines. In order to build up a database of the lift and drag coefficients versus air speed for several different profiles, simulations have been run using a GRID trivially-parallel method. Thus, the implemented database represents a useful reference for the machine designer, allowing him to choose the proper solution to shape the rotor blades of wind turbines. In more details, each job run calculates specific airfoil performance varying air speed, as well as air speed angle of attack with reference to the airfoil chord. The job uses the trivially parallel method to evaluate the complete airfoil performance and MPI runs for each specific airfoil performance point. Thus, the implemented method allows to draw the complete airfoil performance curve using less global time than using a serial approach.