scholarly journals Mapping of Meteorological Observations over the Island of Ireland to Enhance the Understanding and Prediction of Rain Erosion in Wind Turbine Blades

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4555
Author(s):  
James W. K. Nash ◽  
Iasonas Zekos ◽  
Margaret M. Stack

Leading edge erosion is becoming increasingly important as wind turbine size and rainfall are predicted to increase. Understanding environmental conditions is key for laboratory testing, maintenance schedules and lifetime estimations to be improved, which in turn could reduce costs. This paper uses weather data in conjunction with a rain texture model and wind turbine RPM curve to predict and characterise rain erosion conditions across Ireland during rainfall events in terms of droplet size, temperature, humidity and chemical composition, as well as the relative erosivity, in terms of number of annual impacts and kinetic energy, as well as seasonal variations in these properties. Using a linear regression, the total annual kinetic energy, mean temperature and the mean humidity during impact are mapped geospatially. The results indicate that the west coast of Ireland and elevated regions are more erosive with higher kinetic energy. During rain events, northern regions tend to have lower temperatures and lower humidities and mountainous regions have lower temperatures and higher humidities. Irish rain has high levels of sea salt, and in recent years, only a slightly acidic pH. Most erosion likely occurs during winters with frequent rain infused with salt due to increased winds. After this analysis, it is concluded that Ireland’s largest wind park (Galway) is placed in a moderate-highly erosive environment and that RET protocols should be revisited.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Finnegan ◽  
Priya Dasan Keeryadath ◽  
Rónán Ó Coistealbha ◽  
Tomas Flanagan ◽  
Michael Flanagan ◽  
...  

Abstract. As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. However, as wind turbines get increasingly larger, new challenges within the design, manufacture and operation of the turbine are presented. One such challenge is leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades. With larger wind turbine blades, tip speed begin to reach over 500 km per hour. As water droplets impact along the leading edge of the blade, rain erosion begins to occur, increasing maintenance costs and reducing the design life of the blade. In response to this, a new leading edge protection component (LEP) for offshore for wind turbine blades is being developed, which is manufactured from thermoplastic polyurethane. In this paper, an advanced finite element analysis (FEA) model of this new leading edge protection component has been developed. Within this study, the FEA model has been validated against experimental trials at demonstrator level, comparing the deflection and strains during testing and found to be in good agreement. The model is then applied to a full-scale wind turbine blade is then modelled with the LEP bonded onto the blade’s leading edge and compared to previously performed experimental trials, where the results were found to be well aligned when comparing the deflections of the blade. The methodology used to develop the FEA model can be applied to other wind blade designs in order to incorporate the new leading edge protection component to eliminate the risk of rain erosion and improve the sustainability of wind turbine blade manufacture, while increasing the service life of the blade.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 1567-1577
Author(s):  
William Finnegan ◽  
Priya Dasan Keeryadath ◽  
Rónán Ó Coistealbha ◽  
Tomas Flanagan ◽  
Michael Flanagan ◽  
...  

Abstract. As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. However, as wind turbines get increasingly larger, new challenges within the design, manufacture and operation of the turbine are presented. One such challenge is leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades. With larger wind turbine blades, tip speeds begin to reach over 300 km h−1. As water droplets impact along the leading edge of the blade, rain erosion begins to occur, increasing maintenance costs and reducing the design life of the blade. In response to this, a new leading edge protection component (LEP) for offshore for wind turbine blades is being developed, which is manufactured from thermoplastic polyurethane. In this paper, an advanced finite element analysis (FEA) model of this new leading edge protection component has been developed. Within this study, the FEA model has been validated against experimental trials at demonstrator level, comparing the deflection and strains during testing, and was found to be in good agreement. The model is then applied to a full-scale wind turbine blade and is then modelled with the LEP bonded onto the blade's leading edge and compared to previously performed experimental trials, where the results were found to be well aligned when comparing the deflections of the blade. The methodology used to develop the FEA model can be applied to other wind blade designs in order to incorporate the new leading edge protection component to eliminate the risk of rain erosion and improve the sustainability of wind turbine blade manufacture while increasing the service life of the blade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 953-969
Author(s):  
Leon Mishnaevsky ◽  
Charlotte Bay Hasager ◽  
Christian Bak ◽  
Anna-Maria Tilg ◽  
Jakob I. Bech ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2110071
Author(s):  
Usman Butt ◽  
Shafqat Hussain ◽  
Stephan Schacht ◽  
Uwe Ritschel

Experimental investigations of wind turbine blades having NACA airfoils 0021 and 4412 with and without tubercles on the leading edge have been performed in a wind tunnel. It was found that the lift coefficient of the airfoil 0021 with tubercles was higher at Re = 1.2×105 and 1.69×105 in post critical region (at higher angle of attach) than airfoils without tubercles but this difference relatively diminished at higher Reynolds numbers and beyond indicating that there is no effect on the lift coefficients of airfoils with tubercles at higher Reynolds numbers whereas drag coefficient remains unchanged. It is noted that at Re = 1.69×105, the lift coefficient of airfoil without tubercles drops from 0.96 to 0.42 as the angle of attack increases from 15° to 20° which is about 56% and the corresponding values of lift coefficient for airfoil with tubercles are 0.86 and 0.7 at respective angles with18% drop.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Castorrini ◽  
Paolo Venturini ◽  
Fabrizio Gerboni ◽  
Alessandro Corsini ◽  
Franco Rispoli

Abstract Rain erosion of wind turbine blades represents an interesting topic of study due to its non-negligible impact on annual energy production of the wind farms installed in rainy sites. A considerable amount of recent research works has been oriented to this subject, proposing rain erosion modelling, performance losses prediction, structural issues studies, etc. This work aims to present a new method to predict the damage on a wind turbine blade. The method is applied here to study the effect of different rain conditions and blade coating materials, on the damage produced by the rain over a representative section of a reference 5MW turbine blade operating in normal turbulence wind conditions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 01007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faizan Afzal ◽  
Muhammad S. Virk

This paper describes a brief overview of main issues related to atmospheric ice accretion on wind turbines installed in cold climate region. Icing has significant effects on wind turbine performance particularly from aerodynamic and structural integrity perspective, as ice accumulates mainly on the leading edge of the blades that change its aerodynamic profile shape and effects its structural dynamics due to added mass effects of ice. This research aims to provide an overview and develop further understanding of the effects of atmospheric ice accretion on wind turbine blades. One of the operational challenges of the wind turbine blade operation in icing condition is also to overcome the process of ice shedding, which may happen due to vibrations or bending of the blades. Ice shedding is dangerous phenomenon, hazardous for equipment and personnel in the immediate area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 977-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Tilg ◽  
Charlotte Bay Hasager ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Kirtzel ◽  
Poul Hummelshøj

Abstract. Leading-edge erosion (LEE) of wind turbine blades is caused by the impact of hydrometeors, which appear in a solid or liquid phase. A reduction in the wind turbine blades' tip speed during defined precipitation events can mitigate LEE. To apply such an erosion-safe mode, a precipitation nowcast is required. Theoretical considerations indicate that the time a raindrop needs to fall to the ground is sufficient to reduce the tip speed. Furthermore, it is described that a compact, vertically pointing radar that measures rain at different heights with a sufficiently high spatio-temporal resolution can nowcast rain for an erosion-safe mode.


Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Liang Wang ◽  
Chenglin Duan ◽  
Jian Zheng ◽  
Zhe Liu ◽  
...  

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