Open AccessMethodology for the energetic characterisation of rain erosion on wind turbine blades using meteorological data: A case study for The Netherlands
Author(s) -
Bartolomé Luis,
Teuwen Julie
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
wind energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1099-1824
pISSN - 1095-4244
DOI - 10.1002/we.2597
Subject(s) - wind power , turbine , environmental science , wind speed , meteorology , work (physics) , kinetic energy , erosion , marine engineering , engineering , geology , aerospace engineering , geography , mechanical engineering , physics , paleontology , electrical engineering , quantum mechanics
Abstract Rain erosion on the leading edge of wind turbine blades is an intricate engineering challenge for the wind industry. Based on an energetic approach, this work proposes a methodology to characterise the erosion capacity of the raindrop impacts onto the leading edge blades. This methodology can be used with meteorological data from public institutions or from direct measurements at the wind turbine locations. The erosion characterisation is analysed using accumulative and per impact erosive variables, that is, total kinetic energy and kinetic energy per impact. To consider the frequency of impacts, two erosive variables are proposed, namely, total kinetic power and kinetic power per impact. These variables are calculated using the data from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute ( Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut , KNMI) of the last 25 years jointly with the operation specifications of an actual wind turbine model (Suzlon S111). The main contribution to the erosive variables was found to be the wind speed because it controls the rotational velocity of the wind turbine. Also, the intensity of the rainfall and the frequency of meteorological data logging, that is, the temporal resolution of data, play a significant role.