Towards early ice detection on wind turbine blades using acoustic waves

Paper in proceeding, 2014

The study focuses on the early detection of ice using controlled acoustic waves propagating in the wind turbine blades. An experimental set-up with a cold climate chamber, a composite test object used in turbine blades and equipment for glaze and rime ice production has been developed. Controlled acoustic waves are generated by magnetostrictive Terfenol-D based actuator. The propagation of three orthogonally polarized acoustic waves was studied by means of 6 accelerometers positioned, 3 each, in 2 holders on the 8 m long composite test object. The results show that for the considered composite test object the formation of ice, the ice mass, icing areas and the temperature have a significant influence on controlled acoustic waves propagation w.r.t. Fourier transform, amplitude attenuation and RMS values as indicators concluding that the proposed acoustic wave technique is a promising approach for ice detection.