Research on fault mechanism of icing of wind turbine blades

In this paper, fault mechanism of icing of wind turbine blades is studied theoretically and experimentally. First, the aerodynamic performance of a wind turbine’s primary airfoil under normal and icing conditions are simulated using Fluent software separately to analyze the geometry effect of icing on wind turbine. Then the formation and characteristics of vibration signal on main shaft caused by mass unbalance of wind turbine’s rotor are analyzed using rotor dynamics theory to evaluate mass effect of icing on wind turbine. Finally, corresponding experiments are carried out on a self-made small wind turbine under laboratory conditions to testify the former theoretical analysis.