Impact of Icing on Wind Turbines Aerodynamic

Abstract: Wind energy covered 11.6% of Europe electricity demand in 2017. Region with cold climates represent a strong potential for wind energy companies because of their sparse population and proper wind conditions. The global wind energy installations in cold climate regions is forecasted to reach a capacity of 186 GW by the end of 2020. But wind turbines installed in cold climate regions are prone to the risks of ice accumulation which affects their aerodynamics behavior, as well as the safety, and structural loads.The aerodynamic forces on wind turbine can be affected in two main ways: ice accretion changes the blade profile, and thus the flow path curvature, and the surface roughness. The importance of these two parameters depend on the ice type. The target ice type for this thesis is the smooth leading-edge glaze ice with horn shape. The aerodynamic consequences of the blade profile change because of the mentioned ice type are studied in detail. The findings of this thesis are classified in five main sections. The first section considers the methodology to model the performance of a wind turbine. The wake behind the turbine is also explored. Different aspects of the simulation methods with computational fluid dynamics using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are investigated in both steady state and transient. In the second section, the time-dependent effects of icing are studied, exploring the moving vortices created by the irregularity of the ice and their frequencies and amplitudes. The main frequency modes of the flow dynamics were analyzed. In the third section, three-dimensional simulation of icing is implemented and the fluid flow arrangement through the rotor is investigated. Two well-recognized approaches are applied and compared, which are Blade Element Momentum (BEM) and CFD. An automated setup is programmed and launched to implement multiple CFD simulations to provide the aerodynamic data for structural analysis in the fourth section. The developed methodology is illustrated on a large-scale wind turbine. In section five, the effects of the uncertain level of ice-accretion is studied through an uncertainty quantification method. The aerodynamic losses are statistically discussed. Then, a scenario study is conducted according to the obtained polynomial chaos expansion, in which the probability distribution of wind power loss due to icing is inspected.The achievements of this thesis can be used in to design of a wind turbine which is supposed to work in a cold climate, as well as assess the economics of a predesigned wind turbine working in a cold region.