Tesfaye, Tamrat (phD)Biadgo, Mulugeta2018-07-312023-11-182018-07-312023-11-182009-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/10688Designing horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) blades to achieve satisfactory levels of performance starts with knowledge of the aerodynamic forces acting on the blades. In this thesis, HAWT blade design is studied first from the aspect of aerodynamic view and the basic principles of the aerodynamic behaviors of HAWTs are investigated. Second the structural design which consists of the blade material selection and the determination of structural cross section, FEM analysis is done using CATIA V5 R16 and ANSYS 10. The displacement, Von Mises and Principal stress results are determined, these results shows that ANSYS is more conservative than CATIA in FEM analysis. Blade-element momentum theory (BEM) known as also strip theory, which is the current mainstay of aerodynamic design and analysis of HAWT blades, is used for HAWT blade design in this thesis. BLADE DESIGN PROGRAM which is a user-interface computer program for HAWT blade design is written. It gives blade geometry parameters (chord-length and twist distributions) and design conditions (design tip-speed ratio, design power coefficient and rotor diameter) for the following inputs; power required from a turbine, number of blades, design wind velocity and blade profile type (airfoil type). The program can be used by anyone who may not be intimately concerned with the concepts of blade design procedure and the results taken from the program can be used for further studies.enThermal Engineering StreamThesis