Study on influence of turbulence intensity on blade airfoil icing mass & aerodynamic performance

Abstract

Wind is an emerging renewable energy resource, but more useful in cold regions. With the increasing threat of climate change and global warming, the unpredictability of wind energy patterns has been affected. With continual threats from extremes and uncertainties, icing on wind turbines has been noted to grow affecting aerodynamic performance. The effect of turbulence intensity at its impact on aerodynamic performance was numerically done using ANSYS Fluent and FENSAP ICE software. Conditions considered for the study included turbulence intensities, median volume diameter (MVD), liquid water content (LWC), angle of attack, and ambient temperature for 180 min. The study's conditions aimed at providing a wide range of effects covering the in-cloud icing and freezing drizzle. The mass of ice increased with an increase in LWC when it increased from 0.05 g/m3 to 0.3 g/m3, and MVD with 1000 μm compared to 40 μm, but when temperature decreased led to an increase from −1 °C to −15 °C. Increasing the angle of attack led to reduced aerodynamic performance with stall angle occurring at α = 0–18°. An increase in the turbulence intensity from 0.01 % to 50 % resulted in decreased CL/CD.

Keywords

• Turbulence intensity
• Icing accretion
• Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE)
• Turbulent flow
• k‐ω SST