Blade optimization methods are crucial for wind turbine design. In this research, a new set of values for the parameters of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method is proposed, and its effects on the enhancement of the power generation of NREL WP-Baseline 1.5 MW horizontal axis wind turbine are investigated. First, PSO parameters are tuned and convergence speed and the optimal accuracy of the objective function are improved. Then, the Class/Shape Transformation (CST) method, is employed and an appropriate order of the shape function polynomial is selected. In the third step, the WP-Baseline 1.5 MW blade is optimized according to the tuned PSO parameters, and the airfoil represented by CST algorithms. Later, a CFD model, including 37 million cells and IDDES turbulence model, was validated and used for comparison of the power generation of the original and optimized blades. The optimized blade produced more power for all wind speeds above 4.5 m/s, with a maximum of 13.8% at 10 m/s and +7.25% at the rated wind speed (11.5 m/s). It should be noted that since the algorithms, tunings, and techniques adopted in the present study were general, the presented method can be used as a systematic approach for the aerodynamics shape optimization of multi-megawatt HAWTs.
