Numerical simulation on rime icing of wind turbine blades

Abstract:

In order to investigate wind turbine blade icing, this paper takes the blades of 300 kW wind power equipment as research object. According to a slicing-reconstructing idea, the blades were divided into finite sections. Based on the physical process of blade icing, the boundary element method was adopted to calculate the flow field of wind turbine blade icing. The Lagrangian method was used to numerically calculate the process of water droplets colliding with the blade surface. The ice growth process was simulated through iterative calculation and ice shape reconstruction, and a three-dimensional rime ice growth model of wind turbine blades was thus obtained. The influence of different wind speeds on the rime ice growth of blades was analyzed on the basis of numerical simulation. Results show that rime ice growth was affected by both external environment and blade airfoil. Ice accumulated at the leading edge of the blade; the icing thickness increased slowly from the root to the middle of the blade, and rapidly from the middle to the tip of the blade. As the wind speed increased, the icing thickness and ice coverage area increased, and the ice-covered area moved from leeward to windward. In addition, wind speed had greater impact on the icing of blades from the middle to the tip.