Inverse design of wind turbine blade sections for operation under icing conditions

Highlights: • Inverse design process provides blade shape of wind turbines that operate under icing conditions. • Severity and frequency of icing events are involved in performance criteria. • Aerodynamic performance degradation due to ice accretion is significantly reduced. -- Abstract: A methodology is developed to determine the shape of the two dimensional section of wind turbine blades considering the operation of wind turbine under icing conditions. An inverse design process provides the blade shape from a prescribed pressure or velocity distribution, and then the icing of the blade section obtained is simulated under different ambient conditions. The aerodynamic performances of the bare blade and the iced blade are evaluated and compared, which serves as the basis for involving a correction factor in the inverse design process. This correction factor modifies the prescribed velocity distribution so that the blade shape provided by the inverse design process will be applicable under some icing conditions that are chosen according to the prevailing meteorological conditions of the location where the wind turbine is installed. The procedure presented will contribute towards the design of blade shapes that can enable wind turbines to operate under a wide range of ambient conditions satisfactorily.