Atmospheric icing presents serious challenges to the development of wind power of the wind energy industry in cold regions. The potential detrimental impact on the safe operation of wind turbines and the energy harvest hasn't been fully understood and requires further investigation. This thesis presents the research on icing profiles under different weather conditions and their impact on natural frequency, fatigue life, and lift and drag of the wind turbine blade. The research aims to develop a further understanding of the effect of atmospheric ice accretion on the structural integrity and aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blades through numerical and aerodynamic investigations to address the challenges facing the industry. A 5-MW NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) wind turbine blade was selected for this study, due to availability of required geometric design parameters and experimental data for verification. The turbine rotor and its three blades were modelled and numerically simulated with commercial finite element software ANSYS. Three icing scenarios were chosen according to the ISO Standard and the corresponding icing profiles were developed to investigate their influence on vibrational behaviours of the wind turbine blade and rotor under different weather conditions. Icing loads were applied on the leading edge of the blade and natural frequency results were compared between clean and iced blades. It was found that harsh icing weather drove the natural frequency down to the near resonance limit, which could lead to significant issue on structural integrity of the wind turbine. The effect of atmospheric ice accretion with additional load due to varying wind speeds on the fatigue life of the wind turbine blade has been investigated. Significant reduction of fatigue life was found due to the increase of the von Mises stresses. Finally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was carried out to investigate the effect of atmospheric ice accretion on the aerodynamic performance of typical 1-MW and 5-MW wind turbine blades. Results of the drag and lift coefficients and power production under different icing scenarios were obtained for five angles of attack. Compared with the results of the clean aerofoil profile, remarkable reduction in the power generation was observed due to the accreted ice at various aerofoil sections in the spanwise direction of the blade, demonstrating the detrimental impact of atmospheric icing on energy harvest for the wind energy industry.

Este trabalho apresenta a simulação numérica do escoamento turbulento em torno de uma turbina eólica de eixo vertical de pequeno porte, Savonius tipo helicoidal com torção de 180° nas pás. Com o intuito de avaliar a metodologia computacional empregada os resultados numéricos obtidos são comparados com os resultados experimental e numérico contidos no estado da arte. Também, compara-se o coeficiente de toque da turbina Savonius helicoidal com a turbina Savonius convencional. As simulações numéricas são baseadas no Método de Volumes Finitos, e para tal emprega-se o programa Fluent /Ansys versão 13.0 que resolve as equações da continuidade e as equações de Navier-Stokes com médias de Reynolds, juntamente com o modelo de turbulência . As simulações são desenvolvidas empregando diferentes malhas computacionais em estudos transientes, tridimensionais, com a turbina estacionária. A avaliação da qualidade da malha é realizada através do método de Índice de Convergência de Malha (GCI) o qual analisa o quão longe os resultados estão da solução assintótica para a malha utilizada. Após a análise da qualidade de malha, realizam-se simulações com a turbina em rotação as quais fazem uso da malha contendo uma região móvel possibilitando a imposição de uma velocidade angular ao rotor. O coeficiente de torque é obtido nas simulações e a partir dele calcula-se o coeficiente de potência. Além da análise do desempenho do rotor realiza-se uma análise qualitativa das características do escoamento sobre a turbina. A turbina Savonius helicoidal apresenta um valor de coeficiente de potência de 0,175 para a razão de velocidade de ponta de 0,58 considerando correção do efeito de bloqueio. Os resultados obtidos apresentam boa concordância com os resultados publicados por outros autores. / This dissertation presents the numerical simulation of the turbulent flow around of a small sized vertical axis wind turbine, consisting in a helical Savonius type with a 180° degree of blade twist. In order to evaluate the used methodology the obtained results are compared with the state of the art numerical and experimental data. It will be also presented the comparison between the torque coefficient of the conventional Savonius turbine and the helical Savonius turbine. The numerical simulations are based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM), using the commercial code Fluent/ANSYS version 13.0, which solves the continuity and Navier-Stokes through the Reynolds time-averaged methodology, including the turbulence model. The simulations are developed using different computational meshes for transient and three-dimensional studies with the stationary turbine. The evaluating the quality of the mesh is performed by of Grid Convergence Index (GCI) method which analyzes how far the results are the asymptotic solution to the mesh used. After the evaluation of the mesh quality, it was simulated a case considering the rotor motion using the moving mesh configuration, allowing the imposition of an angular velocity to the turbine. In the post-processing stage, it is possible to obtain the torque coefficient on the rotor shaft, allowing the calculation of the power coefficient for the turbine. In addition to the performance analysis, it is also made a qualitative analysis of the flow characteristics over the turbine rotor and in both cases presenting a good correspondence with the results in the literature. The helical Savonius turbine presents a value of power coefficient of 0.175 to a tip speed ratio of 0.58 whereas blocking effect correction.

Este trabalho apresenta a simulação numérica do escoamento turbulento em torno de uma turbina eólica de eixo vertical de pequeno porte, Savonius tipo helicoidal com torção de 180° nas pás. Com o intuito de avaliar a metodologia computacional empregada os resultados numéricos obtidos são comparados com os resultados experimental e numérico contidos no estado da arte. Também, compara-se o coeficiente de toque da turbina Savonius helicoidal com a turbina Savonius convencional. As simulações numéricas são baseadas no Método de Volumes Finitos, e para tal emprega-se o programa Fluent /Ansys versão 13.0 que resolve as equações da continuidade e as equações de Navier-Stokes com médias de Reynolds, juntamente com o modelo de turbulência . As simulações são desenvolvidas empregando diferentes malhas computacionais em estudos transientes, tridimensionais, com a turbina estacionária. A avaliação da qualidade da malha é realizada através do método de Índice de Convergência de Malha (GCI) o qual analisa o quão longe os resultados estão da solução assintótica para a malha utilizada. Após a análise da qualidade de malha, realizam-se simulações com a turbina em rotação as quais fazem uso da malha contendo uma região móvel possibilitando a imposição de uma velocidade angular ao rotor. O coeficiente de torque é obtido nas simulações e a partir dele calcula-se o coeficiente de potência. Além da análise do desempenho do rotor realiza-se uma análise qualitativa das características do escoamento sobre a turbina. A turbina Savonius helicoidal apresenta um valor de coeficiente de potência de 0,175 para a razão de velocidade de ponta de 0,58 considerando correção do efeito de bloqueio. Os resultados obtidos apresentam boa concordância com os resultados publicados por outros autores. / This dissertation presents the numerical simulation of the turbulent flow around of a small sized vertical axis wind turbine, consisting in a helical Savonius type with a 180° degree of blade twist. In order to evaluate the used methodology the obtained results are compared with the state of the art numerical and experimental data. It will be also presented the comparison between the torque coefficient of the conventional Savonius turbine and the helical Savonius turbine. The numerical simulations are based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM), using the commercial code Fluent/ANSYS version 13.0, which solves the continuity and Navier-Stokes through the Reynolds time-averaged methodology, including the turbulence model. The simulations are developed using different computational meshes for transient and three-dimensional studies with the stationary turbine. The evaluating the quality of the mesh is performed by of Grid Convergence Index (GCI) method which analyzes how far the results are the asymptotic solution to the mesh used. After the evaluation of the mesh quality, it was simulated a case considering the rotor motion using the moving mesh configuration, allowing the imposition of an angular velocity to the turbine. In the post-processing stage, it is possible to obtain the torque coefficient on the rotor shaft, allowing the calculation of the power coefficient for the turbine. In addition to the performance analysis, it is also made a qualitative analysis of the flow characteristics over the turbine rotor and in both cases presenting a good correspondence with the results in the literature. The helical Savonius turbine presents a value of power coefficient of 0.175 to a tip speed ratio of 0.58 whereas blocking effect correction.