Abstract: Based on the expression method of airfoil shape, a design method of wind turbine airfoil is presented and a new wind turbine airfoil with relative thickness of 18％called ICE180 is optimized on the basis of a original airfoil WT180 under typical rime icing conditions. In the condition of natural transition, the method of RFOIL is used to calculate the aerodynamic performance of three different airfoils, ICE180, WT180 and NACA63418, when they are rime iced up and not; the method called computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to validate the aerodynamic performance of three different ice airfoils under rime icing conditions . The results show that, compared to the original airfoil WT180, the new airfoil ICE180 keeps good aerodynamic performance under no icing up conditions. Besides, its aerodynamic performance is greatly improved and the thickness of leading edge ice accretion is reduced when iced up in the range of main attack angle. Therefore, the airfoil optimization design method presented contributes to the design of dedicated wind turbine airfoil under rime icing conditions.

Key words: wind turbines;airfoils;rime ice;aerodynamic performance;optimization design