Overview
The wind energy industry has recently reported excess damage to the leading edge of wind turbine (WT) blades that reduces the lift on the blade (reducing electrical power production) and increases maintenance costs when blades have to be repaired or replaced. We hypothesize that some of this damage is due to impact fatigue caused by collision with rain droplets and hailstones that causes the leading edge material to crack, causing a loss of the coating material and degrading the blade aerodynamics. Leading edge blade erosion may cause a 1-5% reduction in annual energy production (AEP) from affected WT and blade repair/replacement is a major source of operations and maintenance costs (O&M)
Our project is designed to:
OBJECTIVE 1: Develop a first assessment of whether LEE potential can be characterized using data from NWS dual-polarization Doppler RADAR.
OBJECTIVE 2: Develop a first assessment of the ability to simulate drivers of LEE using the Weatehr Research and Forecastign model.
OBJECTIVE 3: Advance methods to improve estimation of leading edge damage using blade inspection imagery from operating wind farms.
OBJECTIVE 4: Advance understanding of the mechanisms that lead to LEE.
Publications and presentations
Journal articles
Letson F.W., Barthelmie R.J., and Pryor S.C. (2020): RADAR-derived precipitation climatology for wind turbine blade leading edge erosion. Wind Energy Science 5 331-347 https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-331-2020 .
Barthelmie R.J., Letson F., Ahsan S.N., Barbaria D.K., Barrera C.S., Creaer A., Dudley LCC, Garell M., La Spisa E.J., Li S., Mishr A., Paranjape A.R., Rambaran S., Singh A., Hu W. and Pryor S.C. (2020): Wind turbine blade leading-edge erosion. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1452 012046 doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012046.
Letson F., Shepherd T.J., Barthelmie R.J. and Pryor S.C. (2020): Modelling hail and convective storms with WRF for wind energy applications. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1452 012051 doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012051.
Li S., Barthelmie R.J., Bewley G.P. and Pryor S.C. (2020): Effects of hydrometeor droplet characteristics on wind turbine blade leading edge erosion: a numerical study. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1452 012053 doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012053.
Conference presentations
Barthelmie R.J., Letson F., Ahsan S.N., Barbaria D.K., Barrera C.S., Creaer A., Dudley LCC, Garell M., La Spisa E.J., Li S., Mishr A., Paranjape A.R., Rambaran S., Singh A., Hu W. and Pryor S.C (2019): Wind turbine blade leading-edge erosion. North American Wind Energy Academy WindTech Conference, Amherst, USA, October 2019 (oral presentation).
Letson F., Shepherd T.J., Barthelmie R.J. and Pryor S.C. (2019): Modelling hail and convective storms with WRF for wind energy applications. North American Wind Energy Academy WindTech Conference, Amherst, USA, October 2019 (oral presentation).
Letson F., Barthelmie R.J. and Pryor S.C. (2019): Wind turbine blade leading edge erosion from hail: A case study in Texas. North American Wind Energy Academy WindTech Conference, Amherst, USA, October 2019 (poster presentation).
Li S., Barthelmie R.J.*, Bewley G.P. and Pryor S.C. (2019): Effects of hydrometeor droplet characteristics on wind turbine blade leading edge erosion: a numerical study. North American Wind Energy Academy WindTech Conference, Amherst, USA, October 2019 (oral presentation).* = presenter
Letson F., Barthelmie R.J. and Pryor S.C* (2019): Wind turbine blade erosion climate atlas for the contiguous United States. Wind Energy Science Conference 2019, Cork, Ireland, June 2019 (oral presentation).* = presenter.
Barthelmie R.J., Letson F., Ahsan S.N., Barbaria D.K., Barrera C.S., Creaer A., Dudley LCC, Garell M., La Spisa E.J., Li S., Mishr A., Paranjape A.R., Rambaran S., Singh A., and Pryor S.C (2019): Blade leading edge erosion experiments and image processing. Wind Energy Science Conference 2019, Cork, Ireland, June 2019 (oral presentation).
Team
Professor Sara C. Pryor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Professor Rebecca J. Barthelmie, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Mr Shoulin Li, MS student, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Fred Letson, Post Doc, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
MANY MEng and MAE science teams!
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