Experimental investigation of ice accumulation on horizontal axis wind turbines

Wind energy is the world’s fastest growing source of electricity production. If this trend continues, sites that are plentiful in wind energy will be efficiently utilized. Many sites are located in cold, wet regions such as northern coastal regions of Canada. This thesis studies ice accumulation on wind turbine blade, at several positions, for three different wind speeds at -10 ᵒC and LWC of 0.6 g/m³. NACA 63415 airfoil was studied in this thesis. The blade model was designed to be suitable to the specifications of wind turbines. The blade was positioned at 0ᵒ, 45ᵒ and 90ᵒ, and the wind speeds were 3.5 m/s, 4 m/s and 5 m/s. In addition, some tests were conducted with changes in the angle of attack, from 0ᵒ to 90ᵒ with the angular position of the blade and wind speed maintained constant. All tests were conducted in a climatic wind chamber with a fan and two spray nozzles. Two different measurements (chord and thickness) are taken at four location of the blade span. All tests adjusted at three hours. Therefore, these parameters produced the highest accumulation of ice on the chord and the thickness of the blade and recorded the highest weight of ice. In this study, the highest accumulation of ice on the chord and the thickness of the blade was at (V = 5 m/s, θ = 45ᵒ and α = 45ᵒ) where it was approximately 61 mm and 47 mm respectively, and the maximum weight of ice on the blade was 6.7 kg. When the angle of attack changed, the weight of the ice increased slightly, where the highest ice weight at the angle of attack of 90ᵒ was 7.2 kg