Ambient Temperature Effect on Wind Turbine Blade Icing Shape by Numerical Simulation

Abstract

For researching on the rules of icing on wind turbine blade in different temperatures, a numerical simulation method has been established in this paper. Three kinds of sections of airfoils which are the blades of 1.5 MW wind turbine have been used for icing simulation. The simulations are carried out in four kinds of temperatures which are -8ºC, -12ºC, -16ºC and -20ºC. By this way the shapes and dimensionless areas of icing on blades have been analyzed. The results show that the shapes of icing on all kinds of airfoils change from horn ice to streamlined ice with decreasing of ambient temperature. When ambient temperature is -20°C, the shape of icing on the tip of one kind of airfoil become streamlined ice; the other ones are still small horn ice. The shorter tip of the airfoil is, the more greatly value of dimensionless area of icing varies with changing of temperature. The research finding provides theoretical basis and numerical reference to development of anti and deicing strategy for wind turbine blades.