1. CANADIAN R&D ACTIVITIES ON WIND ENERGY
PRODUCTION IN COLD CLIMATE AND IN
COMPLEX TERRAIN
Hussein Ibrahim, Christian Masson, Cédric Arbez, Mariya Dimitrova

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
• Nordic climate
• Major issues
• Canadian R&D Activities on Wind Energy Production in Cold
Climate
2 www.eolien.qc.ca

3. NORDIC CLIMATE
Definition :
Regions where T is lower than standard operational
limits (-20oC) and/or with atmospheric icing
Atmospheric icing
Glaze ice (freezing rain or drizzle)
• Usually dense & transparent ice
Rime ice (in-cloud icing or freezing fog)
• White & feathery accumulations of variable
density
Wet snow
Source : Tammelin 2005 • Heavy & wet adhering snow
3 www.eolien.qc.ca

4. MAJOR ISSUES
Temperatures
• Adapted technologies
Storms & avalanches
• Site access
Source : Tammelin 2003
Atmospheric icing
• Production losses
• Vibration Source : Maissan 2005
• Security
• Noise
• Measure & control
4 www.eolien.qc.ca Source : Tammelin 2005 Source : Tammelin 2003

5. RESEARCH PROGRAM OF CANADIAN WIND ENERGY
STRATEGY NETWORK (WESNET)
Focus on 7 projects with cold weather issues:
• Design of ice-free anemometers
• Wind turbine composite materials for the Canadian
context
• Ice accretion modelling
• Wind tunnel investigations of icing impact on wind
turbine blade profiles
• Forecasting icing events
• Icing event monitoring
• Atlas of icing events at high resolution
5 www.eolien.qc.ca

6. DESIGN OF ICE-FREE ANEMOMETERS
Anemometer design (1st generation) Anemometer design (2nd generation)
150 W
Better heat
Lack of heating at distribution
hub level and on the on the rotor
anemometer shaft Additional
heating
anemometer
in shaft
Project goals and motivations:
Simple, robust, low-
consumption and reliable
instrument for wind velocity
measurement
Researcher: Jean Ruel, André Bégin-Drolet, Université Laval
6 www.eolien.qc.ca

7. WIND TURBINE COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR THE
CANADIAN CONTEXT
Objectives:
• Investigate possible limitations of current blade designs when used in cold climate.
ETS - Material characterisation in extreme conditions: Sample
Static and dynamic mechanical properties at low temperature. fabrication
Failure modes analysis.
Effect of freeze-thaw cycles.
UVic - Finite element (FE) modelling of blade structure
relying on cold temperature material data. Mechanical
test set-up
Researchers: Simon Joncas (ETS), Curran Crawford (UVic)
7 www.eolien.qc.ca

8. ICE ACCRETION MODELLING
General objectives
• To evaluate icing impact on wind
turbine performance
• Optimize de-icing
Specific objectives
• Use commercial CFD codes
to simulate ice accretion on
objects and wind turbine
blades;
• Validate the 2D methods
and extend to three-
dimensional simulations of
ice accretion around
rotating blades;
• Use CFD and heat transfer
analysis to optimize electro-
thermal de-icing
Researchers: Adrian Ilinca, UQAR; Guy Fortin, Jean Perron UQAC; Marcelo Reggio – École Polytechnique
8 www.eolien.qc.ca 8

9. ICE ACCRETION MODELLING : RESULTS
Contours of normalized water volume
fraction over a cylinder of 10.16 cm
diameter 3D results – Aerodynamics
- NREL case
Comparison of local collection efficiency results: Eulerian approach
in CFX, experimental results, Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches in
FLUENT, numerical validation with FENSAP-ICE(DROP3D)
9 www.eolien.qc.ca

10. ICE ACCRETION MODELLING : RESULTS
PROICET
Numerical simulator to
predict the wind energy
production losses due to
icing (Developed by
Mariya Dimitrova,
UQAR-Wind Energy
TechnoCentre)
CIRALIMA 2D
Numerical simulator to predict the ice
shape (Developed by Guy Fortin, UQAC)
Researchers: Adrian Ilinca, UQAR; Guy Fortin, Jean Perron UQAC; Marcelo Reggio – École Polytechnique
10 www.eolien.qc.ca

11. WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICING IMPACT ON
WIND TURBINE BLADE PROFILES
T3
T1
Experimental Study of Hybrid Anti-icing Heating zone Thermocouple
HE 1
HE 2
Systems combining Thermoelectric and T2 T4
Hydrophobic Coatings. Subscale Model
Contact angle
Icing Condition
LWC 0.4 g/m³ , MVD 27 µm
EXPERIMENTS
Air Speed Aluminium sheet covered by
21 m/s 3MTM High Performance
Protective Film
40 meters
0.52 Glaze : -5ºC Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic CoatingsTested under Icing Condition
Rime : -20ºC
Wearlon® StaClean HIREC
Researchers: Jean Perron & Guy Fortin , AMIL at UQAC
11 www.eolien.qc.ca

12. WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICING IMPACT ON
WIND TURBINE BLADE PROFILES
Experimental Study of Hybrid Anti-icing Systems combining Thermoelectric
and Hydrophobic Coatings.
100 100
Hydrophobic Super Hydrophobic Super
90 90 Rime
S W hydrophobic hydrophobic
80 Glaze
Volume Reduction (%)
80 t e S
Power Reduction (%)
H
H W
70 a a 70 t I
I
60 c
l
r
l
R RESULTS 60 a
c
e
a
R
E
50 E 50 r
e o l C
40 C 40 l
a n e
30 n 30 a o
Rime n n
20 20
10 Glaze 10
0 0
60 90 120 150 180 60 90 120 150 180
Contact Angle (º) Contact Angle (º)
RIME ICE CONDITION HIREC GLAZE ICE CONDITION
3M
HIREC
3M
Researchers: Jean Perron & Guy Fortin , AMIL at UQAC
12 www.eolien.qc.ca

13. MONITORING ICING EVENTS
Objectives:
• Study the capabilities of icing detectors
• Investigate behaviour of wind
measurement instruments in icing
conditions
• Construct a database of icing events
Instrumentations:
• Camera
• Goodrich ice detector (0872E3)
• Thies Ultrasonic anemometer
• NRG cup anemometers (#40C &
Icefree3)
Researcher: Christian Masson, ETS
13 www.eolien.qc.ca

14. FORECASTING ICING EVENTS
Objectives:
• Managing energy production (fluctuations for network connection
• Planning turbines shutdown for maintenance operations
Researcher: Robert Benoit, ETS
14 www.eolien.qc.ca

15. ATLAS OF ATMOSPHERIC ICING EVENTS AT HIGH RESOLUTION
Objective:
• Construct a complete
Canadian atlas of
atmospheric icing
events
Methodology:
• Based on reanalysis
data at 32 km
resolution (NARR)
• Validated with Airport
data
Data : Resolution :
Temperature 32 km grid
Relative humidity Data every 3 h
Liquid water content
Cloud base height Time period :
Visibility 28 years of data
Freezing rain forecast available
Researchers: Christian Masson & Robert Benoit, ETS; Jean Perron, UQAC
15 www.eolien.qc.ca

16. CONCLUSION
Wind energy development in many countries is faced with cold climate
conditions that require adapted technologies and techniques.
Canada is a prime example for this kind of weather and many research
activities focus on the specificities of wind energy in cold climates.
The most important research initiative regarding the wind energy sector in
the country is the Canadian Wind Energy Strategic Network (WESNet), a
NSERC funded Strategic Research Network. It regroups highly productive
researchers across Canada and is supported by the government, the
industry, associations and institutions.
The projects, financed by WESNet, are carried out by prominent
researchers from many universities and involve three major groups (the
Canadian research chair on the Nordic Envionment Aerodynamics of Wind
Turbines (NEAT) at École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), the Anti-icing
Materials International Laboratory (AMIL) at Université du Québec à
Chicoutimi, and the TechnoCentre éolien, a full-size installation in a Nordic
region.
The research team can found its work on essential resources such as wind
turbines farms, meteorological towers, icing monitoring towers, refrigerated
wind tunnels, simulation software, super-computers, and excellent
laboratories.
16 www.eolien.qc.ca

17. Hussein IBRAHIM
51 chemin de la mine
Merci! G0E 1W0, Murdochville, QC
hibrahim@eolien.qc.ca
Tél:418-784-3646#223
www.eolien.qc.ca
1-888-EOLIENS