Investigation of wind turbine power generation during atmospheric icing by multi-disciplinary experimentation

This paper presents an aerodynamic analysis of power loss of a representative 1.5 MW wind turbine for various icing conditions using a unique combination of two experimental methods for airfoil performance analysis. Atmospheric icing conditions varying in temperature, MVD, and LWC are generated in an icing facility to simulate a 45 minute icing event. The ice shapes are then molded for preservation and subsequent wind-tunnel testing. Lift and drag measurements are used to estimate the total power production of the iced wind turbine using a BEMT prediction code. A 16% loss of airfoil lift at operational AoA is observed for freezing fog conditions. Drag increases at ࢉ࢒ = 0.5 are observed to be 190% at temperatures near 0°C, 145% near -10° C, and 80% near -20°C. An analysis of the wind turbine aerodynamic loads due to atmospheric icing yields power losses ranging from 25% to 30%. An exception to these results exists for a single super large droplet (SLD) icing case in which lift decrease and drag increase are more severe. The analysis gives insight to potential control strategies for wind turbine operators attempting to minimize revenue loss in cold-climate operations.