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Metallic Flame-Sprayed Coatings as Anti-Icing and De-Icing Systems for Wind Turbines
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- Author / Creator
- Lopera, Adrian
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Ice accretion is a problem that affects the performance and safety of structures that are exposed to cold weather environments. In wind energy production, a constantly growing industry, ice accretion has been found to decrease the performance, produce mechanical failures, and decrease the safety of wind turbines in cold climates. The development of methods to decrease and mitigate the effects of ice accretion in the performance, longevity, and safety of wind turbines has been the main objective of many studies. In this thesis, flame-sprayed nickel-chromium-aluminum-yttrium (NiCrAlY) and nickel-chromium (NiCr) coatings were deposited on fiber-reinforced polymer composites (FRPC). Electrical current was applied to the coatings to increase the surface temperature by way of Joule heating. The performance of the coatings as heating elements was tested under different cold environment conditions. In addition, heat transfer models were developed to predict the heating and melting times of ice during the de-icing process. It was found that the coatings were effective heating elements for melting accumulated ice on polymer composite structures that were exposed to cold environments. The results of a finite length-scale model and its agreement with experimental data suggest that a heat conduction model may be applied to free boundary problems to predict phase change phenomena induced by thermal-sprayed coatings
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2015
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.