Aerodynamic Performance of Wind Turbine Blades in Dusty Environments

The performance of wind turbine blades can be affected by conditions such as sand concentration in dry dusty environments. The mathematical formulations for continuum phase (air) and discrete phase (sand particles) along with the imposed assumptions and applied boundary conditions are presented in this paper. The numerical simulation conducted in this paper studied the effect of sand particles on flow structure and essential dimensionless numbers for flow over the primary airfoil of the wind turbine. The effects of controlling parameters such as sand dimensions, sand/air drift velocity and sand/air mass flow rate ratio are studied and the results are compared against the conditions of uniform, far-field air flow. The results are presented in terms of pressure distribution over the airfoil surface, drag and lift coefficients along with variation of erosion and accretion due to the collision of sand particles over the airfoil surface for various attack angles.