In this paper, an improved aerodynamic performance optimization method for 3-D low Reynolds number (Re) rotor blade is proposed. A conventional optimization procedure of blade is usually divided into three parts, such as the parameterization method, the fitness value evaluation and the optimization algorithm. This work is mainly focused on the first two parts. The parametrization method, Camber-FFD, is presented based on the camber parametrization method and the free-form deformation algorithm (FFD). The shape of 3-D blade is parameterized by the incidence angles and the coordinates of the maximum camber points. The fitness value evaluation has been realized with the help of an adaptive topological back propagation multi-layer forward artificial neural network (BP-MLFANN). During the training of BP-MLFANN, the hybrid particle swarm optimization method combined with the modified very fast simulate annealing algorithm (HPSO-MVFSA) is adopted to determine the neural network topology adaptively. To verify the effectiveness of this aerodynamic optimization method, the aerodynamic performance of a 3-D low-Re blade, such as Blade D900, is optimized, and the results are compared and analyzed based on the experiments and simulations. It is proved that this aerodynamic optimization method is feasible.
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