Design of icing wind tunnel experiment system for rotating blades by using natural low temperature

In order to carry out the study on icing wind tunnel experiment for rotating blades of wind turbine, an icing wind tunnel test system with variable cross test sections by using nature low temperature in cold region was designed. Based on the original wind tunnel in the lab, the test section was reformed by adding a non-spry section. Therefore, the test station for the rotating blade of the wind turbine can be set in the non-spry section and the icing test can be finished in the water spry section. The diameter of the wind turbine rotor is not limited by the water spry section size by using this test system. To measure the main parameters and verify the test ability of this system, three main icing parameters of the test section including wind speed, temperature and liquid water content distributions were tested and analyzed. Furthermore, icing experiments on rotating cylinder and rotating blade airfoil were carried out. The test results including the icing shape and the dimensionless icing area are discussed by comparing with the author's previous results of the original icing wind tunnel tests. According to the test results, the distributions of the main parameters of the test section are stable. The icing shape on cylinders and blade airfoils obtained by both test systems agrees in some degree and the values of the dimensionless icing areas are close. The result shows that the new icing wind tunnel system can be used for the research on icing issue for rotating machinery.