Abstract
Ice throw is a significant risk factor in the vicinity of wind turbines located in cold climate areas. We present a method to estimate the ice chunk trajectories. First, similar to the common practice, only translation is accounted for and the object trajectory is determined by gravity and the aerodynamic drag force. The sensitivity of the trajectories to the launch positions, wind speed, turbine rotation and aerodynamic drag is assessed. Next, trajectory computations with six-degree-of-freedom motion are presented. The required aerodynamic forces and moments are precomputed using CFD. The results indicate that object rotation might be non-negligible when higher accuracy is needed for the trajectory estimates.
Highlights
Due to the limited space for new establishments, there are more and more wind turbines placed in cold climate areas
Besides the above-mentioned engineering challenges, ice accretion leads to safety issues as well: ice chunks might detach from the turbine components and fly to considerable distances, presenting a safety hazard for the persons or objects in the vicinity of the turbine
Since three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computations of the two-way interaction between the air and the flying ice chunk would be computationally too exhaustive, practical trajectory computations are based on one-way interaction, i.e., the ice chunk does not affect the wind velocity field
Summary
Due to the limited space for new establishments, there are more and more wind turbines placed in cold climate areas. These areas have the advantage that the colder air has higher density, and because of this, there is the possibility to harvest more energy for the same wind speed. The major impediment for wind turbines in cold climate is ice accretion which adds extra weight to the turbine components, imbalances the rotor and decreases the aerodynamic efficiency of the blades. Besides the above-mentioned engineering challenges, ice accretion leads to safety issues as well: ice chunks might detach from the turbine components (most commonly from the blades) and fly to considerable distances, presenting a safety hazard for the persons or objects in the vicinity of the turbine. Even if the turbines are most often stopped when ice accretion occurs (to avoid damages), ice throw can still be a considerable risk, partly because ice chunks might detach already before the ice detection system stops the turbine, and partly because of the ever increasing height of the turbines, the ice chunks might travel long distances even if the turbine is parked
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