Erosion modelling on reconstructed rough surfaces of wind turbine blades

Abstract

Numerical simulations of rain droplet impacts on real rough surfaces of leading edges of wind turbine blades are presented. The effect of rough blade surface conditions during liquid impacts on the stress distribution in the protective coating is studied. Realistic rough surfaces of wind turbine blades, obtained from 3D reconstruction of real blades with photogrammetry, as well as artificially generated rough surfaces were introduced into finite element models of the droplet/blade coating interaction. Stress distributions in the protective coating with rough and flat surfaces were studied and compared. The results of the simulations suggest that roughness on the surface of the blade leads to increased stresses in the protective coating.

How Leading Edge Roughness Influences Rain Erosion of Wind Turbine Blades?

“…However, few numerical studies have focused on what happens when rain drops impact damaged surfaces. The study by Kaore et al [30] is an example where impact stress in a surface defect is examined, among few others concerned with surface irregularities [31,32]. There are some experimental studies for the influence of surface roughness on liquid erosion performance [33,34].…”