A Numerical Study on Rime Ice Accretion Characteristics for Wind Turbine Blades

Ice accumulation on wind turbine blade will change aerodynamic performance of blade, increase additional load and then seriously reduce the power generation. To improve power generation, numerical simulation is applied to predict wind turbine blade icing in this paper. The ice accretion process and aerodynamic characteristics of the blade are combined and predicted by using the Fensap-Ice and ANSYS FLUENT software. The features of ice accumulation on wind turbine blade and the influence of icing with different angles of attack (AoA) and median diameter of water droplets (MVD) on aerodynamic performance are studied. It is concluded that with augment of AoA, the whole ice-covered area moves toward pressure surface, the ice limit point of pressure surface and suction surface moves down. When the MVD is 40 μm, the change rate of aerodynamic performance is the largest. The change rate of lift coefficient and drag coefficient is 9.4 % and 54.74 %, respectively.