Influencing Factors of Electric Heating Ice Melting Power of Small Wind Turbine Blades

The electrically-heating-ice melting technology is the most effective method to solve the icing of wind turbine blades, and it is necessary to study and analyze the influencing factors of ice melting power. In this paper, the icing blades of small wind turbines are taken as the research object, a numerical calculation model of blade electric heating and ice melting is established, and the numerical solution process is described. Then the critical ice melting power and limited time ice melting power are defined, and the corresponding calculation process is given. Through the artificial icing test of small wind turbine blades under rotating state, the influence of icing degree, ambient temperature, synthetic wind speed, blade attack angle, allowable duration of ice melting and other factors on ice melting power is simulated and analyzed. The results show that the limited time ice melting power decreases with the increase of the allowable ice melting time, however, it is considered that the allowable ice melting time is 4~6 min. The ice melting power decreases with the increase of icing degree. There is a negative linear relationship between ambient temperature and ice melting power, while there is a positive correlation between synthetic wind speed and ice melting power. The ice melting power with the increase of blade angle of attack overall show the law of first increase and then decrease, and the maximum appears at 0°~4°. The limited time ice melting power is 1~ 2 kW/m² higher than the critical ice melting power. The results of this paper can provide some supports for the operation and design of the actual wind turbine blade electric heating ice melting system.