Numerical investigation of atmospheric icing on wind turbine blades

Ibrahim, Galal Mohamed Galal (2017) Numerical investigation of atmospheric icing on wind turbine blades. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (2MB)

Abstract

The research work presented in this thesis aims to predict ice accretion effect on a wind turbine blade section at 80% of blade span. All simulations are obtained using FENSAP ICE, a widely used solver for aircraft in-flight icing simulations. Using low and high liquid water concentrations existed in clouds at lower altitudes, different icing events are simulated. Ice accretion predictions are computed using single-shot and multi-shot approaches. Blade surface roughness is investigated, as well as the relationships between ice mass, liquid water content, median volume diameter and temperature are predicted. To study the effect of blade design / curvature parameters on the ice formation process, ice accretion loads are predicted for all NREL airfoil families used for horizontal axis wind turbines. The effect of low and high LWC conditions on blade thickness is presented. Effects of atmospheric temperature, LWC, MVD and flow angle of attack on resulted ice shape are investigated. The degradation in aerodynamic characteristics due to ice formation is investigated at different icing conditions. The new numerical data presented in this thesis provide useful insights on ice accretion rates for wind turbines operating in cold and harsh environments.

Actions (login required)

View Item