See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/305473724

A LITERATURE REVIEW OF WIND TURBINES ICING PROBLEMS

Article · June 2016

CITATIONS READS

0 6,428

3 authors:

Giedrius Gecevicius Vaidotas Zimnickas

Lithuanian Energy Institute Lithuanian Energy Institute
22 PUBLICATIONS   83 CITATIONS    5 PUBLICATIONS   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Antanas Markevicius
Lithuanian Energy Institute
33 PUBLICATIONS   283 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Enewable Energy View project

Co2mmunity View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Giedrius Gecevicius on 21 July 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

A LITERATURE REVIEW OF WIND TURBINES ICING PROBLEMS

V. Zinmickas, G. Gecevičius, A. Markevičius

Lithuanian Energy Institute
Breslaujos str. 3, LT-44403, Kaunas - Lithuania
Email: vaidotas.zimnickas@lei. com

ABSTRACT

In order to accumulate a bigger amount of wind power wind turbines are built in liigher altitudes, in more
inclement areas. At these areas icing phenomenon occurs. Praves show that wind turbine icing is
complicated, because ice grow rate on blades depends on many factors: air temperatūra, humidity and
pressure, wind speed, attack angle of blades, size of water droplets etc. Until now, there are no reliable icing
predictions Systems. The most coimnonly used anti - icing method is blade heating which reąuire a lot of
energy and is uneconomical. There are many models made until now, wliich illustrate rime ice formation on
the wind dirbinę blades and only few which shows glaze ice formation.
When wind hirbine blades are covered in ice, aerodynamic properties of blades are changed, power generated
by wind turbine slnink. More over ice layer on blades creates undesirable load, which can damage wind
turbine rotor, shaft and blades. Icing phenomenon has not been understood completely yet. Conditions, wliich
determine icing, are not well known as well as ice growth on wind turbines’ blades.
The aim of tliis article are: to ovcrvicv. the newest literatūra related to the icing phenomenon and its’
Solutions; to compare the most usual anti-icing methods, their advantages and disadvantages; to ovcrvicv and
compare, the newest articles related to the numerical simulation of the icing phenomenon using ANSYS
FLUENT and similar software.

Keywords: wind turbines, icing, CDF modelling

1. INTRODUCTION

In order to reduce fossil fuel consumptions and minimize greenhouse gases emission to
atmosphere nowadays a lot of attention is paid to renewable resource likę wind energy. For
example, totai accumulation of installed wind power in Europe has reached 134 GW in 2014. It is
expected that totai installed wind power in Europe will accumulate more than 192 GW by the year
2020. That would be 42% growth and it is expected that it will fulftll about 15% of all EU electrical
energy demand [1], In order to accumulate a bigger amount of wind power wind turbines are built
in higher, more inclement and poorly populated areas. Those areas have huge potential because
there it is possible to build more powerful wind turbines which do not have big influence on
landscape and do not disturb inhabitants. Moreover, 69 GW of wind energy in the world until 2012
was installed in cold climate areas [2], Būt unfortunately in these areas wind turbines constructions
face other difficulties. For example: in winter, when air temperature drops below 0 °C icing
phenomenon occurs. When wind turbine blades are covered with ice, aerodynamic properties of
blades change, power generated by wind turbine shrinks. More over ice layer on blades creates
undesirable load which can damage wind turbine rotor, shaft and blades.

2. ATMOSPHERIC ICING CONDITIONS

Cold climate areas are regions, where regular conditions of atmosphere are suitable for icing
event. The type of icing depends on weather conditions. Usually three different icing types are
distinguished by different weather conditions. The rate of ice accretion depends not only on weather
conditions būt also on wind turbine parameters such as: angle of attack (AOA), blade length and
width, and blades rotation [3],

11-100
 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

In cloud icing. This kind of icing occurs when super cooled water drops hit a surface which
temperature is below 0 °C. In this condition water drops temperature could be -30 °C or lower, they
do not freeze in the air because of their size, būt they freeze immediately after hitting a surface. Size
of the water drops (median volume diameter - MVD), their content in the air (liąuid water content -
LWC), temperature and wind speed define which type of ice will be formed on the surface: hard
rime, soft rime or glaze.
Hard rime appears at higher MVD and LWC which are common at high altitudes and at
temperatures below -10 °C. The most Severe rime icing occurs on freely exposed mountains or
hilltops where moist air is forced upwards and conseąuently cooled or where mountain valleys force
moist air ■through
j
passes which also increases the wind speed. Hard rime has higher density 600-
900 kg/m and strong adhesion [4],
Soft rime, as well as, hard rime appears at high altitudes, when air temperature is way below
0 °C and MVD and LWC are quite small. Soft rime has low density 200-600 kg/m3 and low or
medium adhesion [4,5].
Glaze ice occurs when air temperature is between 0 °C and -10 °C. Glaze ice can be formed,
when not all water drops freeze immediately, after contacting the surface. The part of water which
gets on the surface freezes and other part runs back and freezes later. Glaze has high density about
900 kg/m3 and strong adhesion for that reason it is very difficult to remove it.
Precipitation can be snow or rain. Precipitation has higher percentage of liąuid water than
clouds and features higher accretion rate which can cause more damage. There are two types of
precipitation which can cause icing: freezing rain and wet snow.
Freezing rain occurs when rain drops fall on the surface which temperature is below 0 °C.
Freezing rain has such features as high density and strong adhesion force.
Wet snow is the accretion process when snowflakes partly contain liąuid water and therefore
are able to adhere to a surface. This process occurs only when ambient temperature is just above
freezing point [6],

3. ICING INFLUENCE ON WIND TURBINE

Icing can influence wind turbine in few different ways: disruption of aerodynamics and
decrease of generated power, full stop of turbine, decreased turbines and its parts lifetime.
When wind turbine blades are covered by ice, blades lift and drag coefficients change. Ice on
the blades increase their airfoil roughness, for this reason air that is leaking over blades surface
begins to separate from surface. Process in which air leaking over blades at difference angle of
attack (AOA) is showed in Fig. 1.

11-101
 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

(AOA = +5 Degree) (AOA = +15 Degree)

Fig. 1. Air leaking hiades stream lines, when AOA is +5 and +15, and air temperature is
-2.5 °C and -5 °C [7]
From Fig. 1 it is clear that there is no noticeable flow separation at low AOA, and separation
increases with increase of AOA. With increasing air flow separation drag coefficient increases
while lift coefficient and torąue decreases. This process is illustrated in Fig. 2.
0.25

0.2

c 0.15
o
% ū-1
8
o 0.05
E-
Č o
-0.05

- 0.1
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Angle of attack

Fig. 2. Torąue coefficient at different temperatures [7]

In Fig. 2 it can be clearly seen that the biggest torąue decrease is at -2.5 °C, it can be
explained by the fact that at this temperature ice is heavier and more rough.
In heavy icing conditions it is possible that ice mass on the blades reaches critical level. In
that case ice accreted on rotor blades causes critical vibrations and aerodynamic imbalance for this
reason wind turbine is forced to stop in order to prevent damage. There are reports which show that
some wind turbines in Sweden during 2002-2003 winter were forced to stop for 7 weeks.
According to Sweden statistics in winter 92% of full stops are caused because of icing [8], In
Germany 85% of full stops of wind turbines in mountains were caused by icing [9],

11-102
 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

4. DE - ICING AND ANTĮ - ICING TECHNIQUES

During recent years a lot of attention was paid to wind turbine icing problems, however
almost all de - icing and anti - icing techniąues are talcen from aviation industry. Ali de - icing and
anti - icing techniąues can be classified into two categories: passive and active. Passive techniąues
are those which change physical features of the surface. Usually physical features change adhesion
force or surface roughness, while active techniąues rely on external system applied to the blade.

4.1 Passive techniąues

4.1.1 Ice-phobic and hydrophobic coatings

Hydrophobic and ice phobic materials repel water or have very low adhesion force.

Fig. 3. Liąuid on hydrophobic surface [10]

Fig. 3 shows liąuid on hydrophobic surface. Liąuids act on surface is defined by contact angle.
Cos(a) = ( 1)
Y Iv

In this eąuation a is contact angle, ysv- angle between surface and vapor, ysl - angle between
surface and liąuid, yjv - angle between liąuid and vapor.
Contact angle shows liąuid repellent properties. If contact angle is less than 90° liąuids will
wet the surface. If contact angle is 180° liąuid will fonu perfect sphere. Materials which have
contact angle eąual to 150° or more are called super hydrophobic.
Nowadays a lot of attention is paid for searching new materials, because some hydrophobic
materials, likę Teflon, could be easily charged with static electricity. In that case water drops can be
easily adhered to blade surface and freeze [10], Advantages of blades coating with hydrophobic
materials are low cost and opportunity to protect whole surface. However special coating is
effective only when it is combined with blade heating Systems, because most hydrophobic materials
are not ice -phobic, also due to contact with ice and insects’ hydrophobic layers become more
rough [11],

4.1.2 Active techniųues

All active techniąues are connected to melting ice from the blades. The most widely used
techniąue is electro thermal blade heating. This techniąue is most popular because of its simplicity
and low cost. However, this and all other active techniąues likę heating with microwaves, warm air
heating have šame disadvantages: until now there are no reliable icing prognostication and detection
Systems. For this reason, ąuiet often blades are heated without any necessity. As a result, energy
losses increase and effectiveness of the system decrease.

11-103
 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

5. ICE DETECTION SYSTEMS

In order to ūse an active de-icing and anti-icing techniąues effectively, reliable detectors mušt
be available. The most freąuently used ice detectors are double anemometer and vibration sensors.
Double anemometer system. It is an ice detection system which consists of two separate
anemometers, one of them is heated and the other one is not. When icing begins unheated
anemometer shows different wind speed than heated, when the speed values reach 5-10%
difference wind turbine blades heating commences. Advantage of this system is its’ simplicity and
low cost. Būt it is ąuite unreliable, because anemometer is much lower than the tip of the blades
where the possibility of icing is higher. Also double anemometer could not detect ice when there is
no wind. This method could be used only when temperature is around 0 °C, in lower temperatures
unheated anemometer may stay firozen for longer periods.
Vibration sensors. When wind turbine blades are covered with ice, extra vibrations and noise
apply when blades turn. Then sensor reacts and heating of the blades starts. This sensor cannot
detect ice when there is no wind, šame as sensor of the double anemometer. Also there is no
investigation what influence has background and varying wind speed noise to data.
Optical sensor. It seems that the best instrument for ice detection should be optical sensor or
video cameras. Optical sensor has to be reliable in all weather conditions and also has to be able to
detect all types of ice. One of the newest devices which is able to do that is Remote Ice Detection
Eąuipment (RIDE). With this device it is possible to detect glaze and rime ice and measure their
layers thickness. Schema of this device is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Principle of RIDE system [12]

A laser of focused light of any visible wavelength outside the region where ice strongly
absorbs shoot on a surface is used. The beam traverses the ice layer and impinges on the underlying
surface, producing an intense bright spot from which light scatters in all directions. All of the light
scattered from the spot and striking the ice interfaces at angle of incidence less than the angle 0
passes through the interface. Those rays incident at angles greater than 0 get internally reflected
from the ice/air interface to Strike and illuminate the surface again. As a result, camera shows a
bright spot where the laser first strikes the surface: in the center of a darlc circular region that is
surrounded by a light region that gives the dark region a sharply defined perimeter (diameter D).
Diameter D, marks the distinction between light from the bright spot that was internally reflected

11-104
 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

inside the layer and light from the bright spot that passed back out through the top ice/air interface
[12], The thickness of the layer could be expressed likę this:

4 *ta n ( 0 ) ' v ’

6. NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF ICING PHENOMENON

In order to evaluate the impact of ice on wind turbine performance, it is important to

understand ice accretion process, how much it affects aerodynamics of blades and how it could be
possible to reduce this affect. In order to minimize energy loses of icing it is important to detect
place where possibility of icing accretion reaches its maximum.
As mentioned above, there are two types of ice: glaze and rime. In glaze icing situation
numerical simulation is quite easy because all water drops freeze at the šame place where they hit
the surface. In order to calculate ice thickness, it is enough to know water amount captured along
the blade. In rime icing situation everything is more complicated because not only ice layer būt also
water leaking over the blades has to be simulated.
Fernando Villalpando examinated how well Standard commercial softvvare simulation fit with
experiment data. He divided turbine blades in three sectors as shown in Fig. 5. All sectors have
rotation at difference speed and collect different amount of water.

Fig. 5. Radial position of the sections [13]

Fig. 6. Ice simulation at different blades place [13]

In Fig. 6 it is clearly visible that simulations of sectors PI and P2 have good agreement with
experiment data. Būt in simulation P3 ice accretion was overestimated at the trailing edge and under
rates at the leading edge. This happened, because numerical model does not take into account

11-105
 C Y SENI 2016.. May 26-27. Kaunas. Lithuania
ISSN 1822-7554. www.cvseni.com

effects of gravity and the fact that air shear stress on the water surface has repercussions for the
runback water and currently predicts a flattened ice contour.

7. CONCLUSIONS

1. Successful development of wind energy in cold climate areas reąuests to improve

technologies which could detect and measure ice on the wind turbine blades. Most currently used
technologies: double anemometer and vibration sensor are not reliable, both of them do not work
when there is no wind. Best solution would be to improve video monitoring technologies which can
work in all conditions.
2. Until now most reliable protection of icing is blade heating, which reąuire huge amount of
energy. In order to reduce this energy loss, it is important to look for new hydrophobic mateliais,
ūse them together with active de - icing techniąues and improve ice detection system.
3. More attention should be paid to rime ice accretion numerical simulation because most
widely used ANSYS FLUENT models does not take into account the effects of gravity and the fact
that air shear stress on the water surface has repercussions for the runback. Also there should be
made 3D icing modeling, because it could help to better evaluate ice distribution on the blades.

8 REFERENCES

1. EUROPEAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION, Wind energy scenarios for 2020.

2. INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY, 2013 annual report.
3. LI Y., TAGAWA K., FENG F., A wind tunnel experimental study of icing on wind turbine
blade airfoil. Energy Conversion and Management, Vok 85, 2014, p. 591-595.
4. TAMMELIN B., CAVALIERE M., Wind energy production in cold climate (WECO), Finnish
meteorological institute. Publishable report.
5. PARENT O., Adrian ILINICA A., Anti-icing and de-icing techniąues for wind turbines:
Critical review. ColdRegions Science and Technology, Vok 65, No. 1, January 2011, p. 88-96.
6. HAN Y., PALACIOS J., SCHMITZ S., Scaled ice accretion experiments on a rotating wind
turbine blade. Journal o f Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vok 109, October
2012, p. 55-67.
7. HOMOL M., VIRK M., WALLENIUS T., Journal o f Wind Engineering and Industrial
Aerodynamics, Vok 98, No. 12, December 2010, p. 724-729.
8. LAMRAOUI F., FORTIN G., BENOIT R., Atmospheric icing impact on wind turbine
production. Cold Regions Science and Technology, Vok 100, April 2014, p. 36-49.
9. DURSTEWITZ M., A statistical evaluation of icing failures in Germany. Germany, 2004.
10. BOINOVICH L., EMELYANENKO A., Anti-icing potential of super hydrophobic coatings,
Mendeleev Communications, Vok 23, No. 1, January-February 2013, p. 3-10.
11. DALILI N., EDRISY A., CARRIVEAU R., A review of surface engineering issues critical to
wind turbine performance. Renewahle and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vok 13, No. 2,
February 2009, p. 428-438.
12. GAGNON R., GROVES J., PEARSON W., Remote ice detection eąuipment - RIDE. Cold
Regions Science and Technology, Vok 72, March 2012, p. 7-16.
13. VILLALPANDO F., REGGIOA M., ILINICA A., Ice accretion and anti-icing heating power
predietion on wind turbines using Standard commercial software, Canada, 2015.

11-106

View publication stats