Experimental Study of Atmospheric Ice Detection on Wind Turbine Blade Using Thermal Infrared Technique

Abstract

Various techniques have been used by researchers to detect and estimate the associated parameters of atmospheric ice accretion on structures like wind turbine blades in cold regions. Most of these techniques did not perform well in harsh weather conditions. This paper describes a passive thermal Infrared based technique to detect ice on wind turbine blades. To validate the concept and perform this lab based study, a comprehensive lab setup at cold room chamber of Narvik University College was designed, that consists of a very long wavelength thermal infrared camera (λ = 17 μm), frequency controlled low speed ice generator, data acquisition system, associated electronics and computational resources. Thermal infrared images of scaled wind turbine model in cold environment were processed using image processing techniques to study the temperature and emissivity distribution along wind turbine blade, which provided more accurate results as compared to the point sensors, where extensive computation and material degradation under freezing temperatures is a constant problem.