Optimisation of the efficiency of carbon fibre heating elements implanted in wind turbine blades

Ice accretion on wind turbine blades operating in cold climates decreases the aerodynamic efficiency and can have negative impacts on the structural integrity. This paper presents the results of a study on the concept of using implanted resistive heating for the anti-icing of wind turbine blades. A finite difference model is developed and used to perform transient heat transfer analysis of the implanted heating elements within the wind turbine rotor blade. The heat transfer module is linked to a genetic algorithm optimiser module to find the optimum depth of implanted heating elements which minimises the energy consumption of the system subject to manufacturing and operational constraints. The control of the system has been considered by observing the system performance using the results generated by the optimisation process.