CANADIAN R&D ACTIVITIES ON WIND ENERGY

PRODUCTION IN COLD CLIMATE AND IN

COMPLEX TERRAIN

CANADIAN R&D ACTIVITIES ON WIND ENERGY

PRODUCTION IN COLD CLIMATE AND IN

COMPLEX TERRAINHussein Ibrahim, Christian Masson, Cédric Arbez, Mariya Dimitrova

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PRESENTATION OUTLINEPRESENTATION OUTLINE

• Nordic climate

• Major issues

• Canadian R&D Activities on Wind Energy Production in Cold

Climate

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Definition :

Regions where T is lower than standard operational

limits (-20oC) and/or with atmospheric icing

Atmospheric icing

� Glaze ice (freezing rain or drizzle)

• Usually dense & transparent ice

� Rime ice (in-cloud icing or freezing fog)

• White & feathery accumulations of variable

density

� Wet snow

• Heavy & wet adhering snowSource : Tammelin 2005

NORDIC CLIMATENORDIC CLIMATE

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� Temperatures

• Adapted technologies

� Storms & avalanches

• Site access

� Atmospheric icing

• Production losses

• Vibration

• Security

• Noise

• Measure & control

MAJOR ISSUESMAJOR ISSUES

Source : Tammelin 2003

Source : Maissan 2005

Source : Tammelin 2005 Source : Tammelin 2003

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RESEARCH PROGRAM OF CANADIAN WIND ENERGY

STRATEGY NETWORK (WESNET)

RESEARCH PROGRAM OF CANADIAN WIND ENERGY

STRATEGY NETWORK (WESNET)

Focus on 7 projects with cold weather issues:

• Design of ice-free anemometers

• Wind turbine composite materials for the Canadian context

• Ice accretion modelling

• Wind tunnel investigations of icing impact on wind turbine blade profiles

• Forecasting icing events

• Icing event monitoring

• Atlas of icing events at high resolution

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Anemometer design (1st generation)

Lack of heating at

hub level and on the

anemometer shaft

DESIGN OF ICE-FREE ANEMOMETERSDESIGN OF ICE-FREE ANEMOMETERS

Project goals and motivations:

Simple, robust, low-

consumption and reliable

instrument for wind velocity

measurement

Researcher: Jean Ruel, André Bégin-Drolet, Université Laval

150 W

Anemometer design (2nd generation)

Additional

heating

anemometer

in shaft

Better heat

distribution

on the rotor

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Objectives:

• Investigate possible limitations of current blade designs when used in cold climate.

WIND TURBINE COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR THE

CANADIAN CONTEXT

WIND TURBINE COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR THE

CANADIAN CONTEXT

Researchers: Simon Joncas (ETS), Curran Crawford (UVic)

Samplefabrication

Mechanical test set-up

� ETS - Material characterisation in extreme conditions:

� Static and dynamic mechanical properties at low temperature.

� Failure modes analysis.

� Effect of freeze-thaw cycles.

� UVic - Finite element (FE) modelling of blade structure

relying on cold temperature material data.

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Researchers: Adrian Ilinca, UQAR; Guy Fortin, Jean Perron UQAC; Marcelo Reggio – École Polytechnique

� General objectives

• To evaluate icing impact on wind turbine performance

• Optimize de-icing

� Specific objectives

• Use commercial CFD codesto simulate ice accretion onobjects and wind turbineblades;

• Validate the 2D methodsand extend to three-dimensional simulations ofice accretion aroundrotating blades;

• Use CFD and heat transferanalysis to optimize electro-thermal de-icing

ICE ACCRETION MODELLINGICE ACCRETION MODELLING

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ICE ACCRETION MODELLING : RESULTSICE ACCRETION MODELLING : RESULTS

Contours of normalized water volume fraction over a cylinder of 10.16 cm

diameter

Comparison of local collection efficiency results: Eulerian approach

in CFX, experimental results, Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches in

FLUENT, numerical validation with FENSAP-ICE(DROP3D)

3D results – Aerodynamics

- NREL case

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ICE ACCRETION MODELLING : RESULTSICE ACCRETION MODELLING : RESULTS

Researchers: Adrian Ilinca, UQAR; Guy Fortin, Jean Perron UQAC; Marcelo Reggio – École Polytechnique

PROICET

Numerical simulator to predict the wind energy production losses due to

icing (Developed by Mariya Dimitrova,

UQAR-Wind Energy TechnoCentre)

CIRALIMA 2D

Numerical simulator to predict the ice shape (Developed by Guy Fortin, UQAC)

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Experimental Study of Hybrid Anti-icing

Systems combining Thermoelectric and

Hydrophobic Coatings.

EXPERIMENTS

0.52

40 m

eter

s

Air Speed21 m/s

Wearlon® StaClean HIREC

Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic CoatingsTested under Icing ConditionGlaze : -5ºC

Rime : -20ºC

Icing ConditionLWC 0.4 g/m³ , MVD 27 µm

Aluminium sheet covered by3MTM High Performance

Protective Film

Subscale Model

Contact angle

WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICING IMPACT ON

WIND TURBINE BLADE PROFILES

WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICING IMPACT ON

WIND TURBINE BLADE PROFILES

Researchers: Jean Perron & Guy Fortin , AMIL at UQAC

ThermocoupleHeating zoneT1

T2

T3

T4

HE 1HE 2

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Experimental Study of Hybrid Anti-icing Systems combining Thermoelectric

and Hydrophobic Coatings.

RESULTS

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

60 90 120 150 180

Contact Angle (º)

Pow

er R

educ

tion

(%)

RimeGlaze

HIREC

Wearlon

Staclean

Hydrophobic Superhydrophobic

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

60 90 120 150 180

Contact Angle (º)

Vol

ume

Red

uctio

n (%

)

RimeGlaze

SuperhydrophobicW

earlon

Staclean

Hydrophobic

HIREC

Researchers: Jean Perron & Guy Fortin , AMIL at UQAC

HIREC

3M

RIME ICE CONDITION

HIREC

3M

GLAZE ICE CONDITION

WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICING IMPACT ON

WIND TURBINE BLADE PROFILES

WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICING IMPACT ON

WIND TURBINE BLADE PROFILES

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MONITORING ICING EVENTSMONITORING ICING EVENTS

Objectives:

• Study the capabilities of icing detectors

• Investigate behaviour of wind

measurement instruments in icing

conditions

• Construct a database of icing events

Instrumentations:

• Camera

• Goodrich ice detector (0872E3)

• Thies Ultrasonic anemometer

• NRG cup anemometers (#40C &

Icefree3)

Researcher: Christian Masson, ETS

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FORECASTING ICING EVENTSFORECASTING ICING EVENTS

Objectives:

• Managing energy production (fluctuations for network connection

• Planning turbines shutdown for maintenance operations

Researcher: Robert Benoit, ETS

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Objective:

• Construct a complete

Canadian atlas of

atmospheric icing

events

Methodology:

• Based on reanalysis

data at 32 km

resolution (NARR)

• Validated with Airport

data

Researchers: Christian Masson & Robert Benoit, ETS; Jean Perron, UQAC

ATLAS OF ATMOSPHERIC ICING EVENTS AT HIGH RESOLUTIONATLAS OF ATMOSPHERIC ICING EVENTS AT HIGH RESOLUTION

Data :Temperature Relative humidity Liquid water contentCloud base heightVisibilityFreezing rain forecast

Resolution :32 km gridData every 3 h

Time period :28 years of data available

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CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

� Wind energy development in many countries is faced with cold climateconditions that require adapted technologies and techniques.

� Canada is a prime example for this kind of weather and many researchactivities focus on the specificities of wind energy in cold climates.

� The most important research initiative regarding the wind energy sector inthe country is the Canadian Wind Energy Strategic Network (WESNet), aNSERC funded Strategic Research Network. It regroups highly productiveresearchers across Canada and is supported by the government, theindustry, associations and institutions.

� The projects, financed by WESNet, are carried out by prominentresearchers from many universities and involve three major groups (theCanadian research chair on the Nordic Envionment Aerodynamics of WindTurbines (NEAT) at École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), the Anti-icingMaterials International Laboratory (AMIL) at Université du Québec àChicoutimi, and the TechnoCentre éolien, a full-size installation in a Nordicregion.

� The research team can found its work on essential resources such as windturbines farms, meteorological towers, icing monitoring towers, refrigeratedwind tunnels, simulation software, super-computers, and excellentlaboratories.

www.eolien.qc.ca1-888-EOLIENS

Merci!Merci!Hussein IBRAHIM

51 chemin de la mine

G0E 1W0, Murdochville, QC

hibrahim@eolien.qc.ca

Tél:418-784-3646#223