Icing wind tunnel test of ice distribution characteristics on the NACA63–412 blade airfoil of wind turbine

• The ice distribution characteristics of NACA63-412 airfoil is explored • The icing distribution range on the upper surface is larger than that on the lower surface • The influence of ambient temperature on the icing mass is more significant than that of wind speed In cold regions, the icing issue of wind turbines affects aerodynamic performance. Therefore, it is very important to explore the ice distribution characteristics for effective icing protection of wind turbines. In this paper, the ice distribution characteristics of a NACA63-412 airfoil at different wind speeds and ambient temperatures is investigated by the icing wind tunnel experiment. The results show that when ambient temperature is -5°C, with increasing wind speed (5-15 m/s), the icing area on the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoil rises in the range of 27.17-40.58 mm 2 (49.35% increase) and 22.72-35.26 mm 2 (55.19% increase), respectively. When ambient temperature drops from -5°C to -15°C, the icing area on the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoil enlarges in the range of 27.17-47.24 mm 2 (73.87% increase) and 22.72-41.96 mm 2 (84.68% increase), respectively. The influence of ambient temperature on the icing mass is more significant than that of wind speed due to the fact that the variation in droplet freezing rate is greater than droplet collection efficiency during icing process. These research results will provide valuable references for the development of wind turbine anti/de-icing technology.