Abstract
Aircraft wings and wind turbine blades are often subjected to harsh and cold climatic conditions. Icing is often observed on wing and blade surfaces in these cold climatic conditions. Wind turbine blades, in particular, are severely impacted by ice accretion which greatly hampers their performance and energy generation efficiency. Ice-accretion patterns are observed to vary with changes in temperature. As the temperature changes, the thickness of the ice accretion, the shape and location of ice-accretion vary greatly. In this paper, three different ice accretion patterns and their impact on the aerofoil efficiency have been investigated using the SST k – ω model in ANSYS CFD. An analysis of the impact of ice-accretion through a comparison of lift and drag coefficients for all three ice accretion patterns indicate that the accretion of ice on an aerofoil can reduce lift generation by 75.3% and increase drag by 280% thereby severely impacting the performance of the aerofoil. The loss in aerodynamic performance is greatly dependent on the ridge height, the extent of ice accretion and the thickness of this ice. The loss in aerodynamic performance has no fixed correlation to the drop in temperature.
Highlights
Air-transportation and renewable energy generation has seen an exponential increase in their growth over the last two decades
Aircraft are increasingly travelling to new destinations some of which are subject to extremely cold climatic conditions
This paper aims to demonstrate the viability of using a commercial CFD software along with a readily available CFD model to ensure rapid and a Corresponding author: Dinesh.Bhatia@nottingham.edu.cn
Summary
Air-transportation and renewable energy generation has seen an exponential increase in their growth over the last two decades. With climate change being an everincreasing reality, energy efficiency is the key to reduce global carbon emissions. In the case of wind turbines, a reduction in downtime can improve the efficiency of energy generation. It is estimated that 24% of the installed wind power capacity is in cold regions where temperatures are often below 0°C [1]. Icing has a very serious impact on the safety of aircraft and loss of power generation in the case of wind turbines. Icing has led to a 16% decline in the power generation capability of installed wind turbines [4]. It is imperative that the phenomenon of icing should be studied and remedial action taken to improve efficiency and safety of aircraft and wind turbines
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