Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of Wind Turbine Blades to Reduce Power Losses due to Icing

Abstract

Ice formation on wind turbines deforms the airfoil profile of the blades and causes alteration in the aerodynamic characteristics of the blades. The aim of this study is to optimize the blade geometry to reduce performance losses by minimizing ice formation on the wind turbine blades in highlands and cold climate regions where wind energy resources are widely utilized. Since the blade profile is one of the crucial parameters for icing and by optimizing the blade profile power production losses can be reduced. In this study the gradient based aerodynamic shape optimization methodology developed earlier is further improved. The ice accretion tool is equipped with a mass preserving smoothing algorithm and the bump functions used for deforming the airfoil profile are fine tuned. Under the same icing condition, the new approach improves the power production losses by more than 3% over the previous optimization study.