Ice Effects on Wind Turbines

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Wind turbines should be able to work really in hard conditions. Sometimes they must withstand  so cold weathers, sometimes so high temperatures which depends on where the turbine locates.  

Wind turbine blade with ice

Especially the blades are effected in an important manner from the cold weather. And sometimes the ices can be problem for wind turbines. That's why during development state, up to climate conditions of desired area which turbine will be located, some extra calculations must be done. One of this extra calculations is ice loads which is defined in guidelines. 

Ice loads

If the turbine continue to produce power in cold weather, ice can be seen on the blade. Due to ice, mass of the blade is changing which makes extra high loads on the some parts of the turbines. What's more if the ice is effecting the pitch motors, the turbine must be shut down by control mechanism. If not due to high rotational speeds, some parts of turbine can be damaged. 

Wind turbine blade with ice

To let the turbine produce power in worse weather conditions wind turbine ice protection system (WTIPS) is invented. It is deicing the blade's leading edge by pulsing power to safely shed ice. WTIPS is a electro-thermal device system using technology originally developed through a NASA Small Business Innovative Research. It is light weight, easy to install, digitally controllable with Plc systems and reliable.

Ice effects on wind turbine blades

To get an idea about ice effects on wind turbines you can watch the following video. The turbine continue working with icy blades.