Wind turbine blade damage aerodynamic profile analysis and its repair techniques

Abstract

With the rapid maintenance cost increase of wind turbine blades, aerodynamic repairing principle can be a supplement to the structural repairing principle, which not only protects the blades from structural damage, but also meets the requirement of power generation efficiency. In this paper, the two-dimensional multi-scale flow field analysis method was employed to investigate the aerodynamic performance of the wind turbine blades damage and its corresponding repair techniques. Repairing principle for airfoil defects on the outer surface of the blade are given according to the blade’s extended position. Firstly, the aerodynamic profile maintenance theory of wind turbine blades is introduced. Then, numerical simulation is performed for the pressure surface and suction surface of 45.3 shape blade damage. Corresponding repair principles are presented. Further, the generality of aerodynamic repairing principle is verified by the numerical simulation on 56.5 shape blade. Finally, the relevant case of Haiyuan Wind Power Station in Ningxia shows that the proposed aerodynamic repairing principle can effectively improve the power generation efficiency in practice.

Keywords

• Blade design
• Aerodynamic profile
• Numerical simulation
• Aerodynamics
• Repairing principle