Airfoil Icing Prediction with Improved Roughness Model

Abstract

Abstract Wind turbines are usually exposed to harsh environmental conditions, resulting in the icing of their structures. The production capability of iced wind turbines drops significantly compared to clean turbines. Understanding how ice build up is the first step in coping with its adverse effects. Analyzing the performance reduction and ice shapes on site can be challenging due to practical difficulties. Numerical analysis of iced blade sections combined with Blade Element Momentum Method can simulate the effects of exposure of wind turbines to icing weather. This paper aims to implement an improved ice accretion model for blade sections of wind turbines. The chosen analytical model is designed to compute roughness due to ice locally and employs three water state models due to icing. Roughness height characterizes the boundary layer development and alters the heat transfer coefficient distribution. The mass balance of the Extended Messinger model that is used for ice accretion prediction is improved by including the remaining water mass on the ice surface. The result of the icing simulation of NACA0012 in wet and dry regimes matches the experimental results well.