Numerical Analysis of Influence of Blade Icing on Dynamic Response of Integrated Wind Turbine Structure

Abstract

Based on the integrated jacket-support offshore wind turbine model of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is coupled with the wind turbine integrated analysis method to study the blade icing process and its influence on the overall dynamic performance of the wind turbine. First, the blade motion attitude calculated by the integrated analysis method is input into CFD. The discrete multiphase model and melting solidification model are used to simulate the icing growth of three-dimensional wind turbine blades. The k-ε turbulence model is used to calculate the aerodynamic performance before and after icing. Finally, the aerodynamic results after blade icing are returned to the integrated analysis method to analyze the influence of blade icing on the overall response of the wind turbine. The results show that the blade icing increases linearly along the blade span. The icing is mainly concentrated on the leading edge of the blade with the thickest ice accumulation at the tip. The lift coefficient decreases and the drag coefficient increases after icing. Blade icing will reduce the power of the whole machine, the torque, and the rotor speed. At the same time, it will lead to additional vibration response at the blade tip and tower top, and increase the wind speed required by the wind turbine to reach the rated power.

Keywords

• wind power in ice area
• blade icing
• analysis of wind turbine integration
• power loss
• coupling analysis