Warm-Air Intermittent De-Icing System for Wind Turbines

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the one-dimensional transient heat transfer in a wind turbine blade leading edge that is covered by ice. Intermittent heating of the surfaces, obtained by means of warm air channeled within the blade shell, was modeled to investigate the applicability of cyclical ice removal from wind turbine blades. Finite differencing was used to solve the heat diffusion differential equations. A conservative approach was employed to get the solution in terms of internal energy. A predictor-corrector method was used to tackle the problem of the water phase change. The de-icing capability of the warm air system was investigated for a typical rotor blade tip section, and its operational limits were illustrated. The comparison with usually employed continuous anti-icing systems showed the de-icing system to offer remarkable reduction of the energy consumption required for the ice prevention system's operation.