Dr. Hui Hu

Martin C. Jischke Professor and Director

Aircraft Icing Physics and Anti-/De-icing Technology Laboratory

Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

huhui@iastate.edu

Dr. Hui Hu is the Martin C. Jischke Professor at Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University. He received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) in China, and a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tokyo in Japan. His recent research interests include advanced optical/laser-based diagnostics, aircraft/aero-engine icing and anti-/de-icing technology; wind energy and wind turbine aeromechanics; Fluid-Structure Interactions (FSI) of built structures in violent windstorms (e.g., tornadoes, downbursts, and snowstorms). Dr. Hu is an ASME Fellow and AIAA Associate Fellow. He is serving as an editor of “Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science-Elsevier” and an associate editor of “ASME Journal of Fluid Engineering” and “ASME Open Journal of Engineering”. Dr. Hu received several prestigious awards in recent years, including 2006 NSF-CAREER Award, 2007 Best Paper in Fluid Mechanics Award (Measurement Science and Technology, IOP Publishing), 2009 AIAA Best Paper Award in Applied Aerodynamics, 2012 Mid-Career Achievement in Research Award of Iowa State University, 2013 AIAA Best Paper Award in Ground Testing Technology, 2014 Renewable Energy Impact Award of Iowa Energy Center, and 2022 AIAA Gas Turbine Best Paper Award. Further information about Dr. Hu’s technical background and research activities is available at: http://www.aere.iastate.edu/~huhui/ 

Title: Wind Turbines Icing Physics and Innovative Strategies for Wind Turbine Icing Mitigation

Abstract：Wind turbine icing represents the most significant threat to the efficiency and integrity of wind turbines operating in cold climates. By leveraging the unique Icing Research Tunnel available at Iowa State University (ISU-IRT), a comprehensive experimental study was conducted to elucidate the underlying physics of the important micro-physical processes pertinent to wind turbine icing phenomena and explore novel anti-/de-icing strategies for wind turbine icing mitigation.  A suite of advanced flow diagnostic techniques, which include molecular tagging velocimetry and thermometry (MTV&T), digital image projection (DIP), and infrared (IR) imaging thermometry, were developed and applied to quantify the transient behavior of wind-driven surface water film/rivulet flows, unsteady heat transfer and dynamic ice accreting process over the surfaces of wind turbine blade models. The potentials of various bio-inspired icephobic coatings, including lotus-inspired superhydrophobic coatings and pitcher-plant-inspired Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS), for wind turbine icing mitigation are evaluated under various icing conditions (i.e., ranged from dry rime icing to wet glaze icing conditions). A novel, hybrid anti-/de-icing strategy that combines minimized electro-heating at the blade leading edge and an ice-phobic coating to cover the blade surface was developed for wind turbine icing mitigation. In comparison to the conventional strategy to brutally heating the massive blade surface for anti-/de-icing operation, the hybrid strategy was demonstrated to be able to keep the entire blade surface icing free with substantially less power consumption (i.e., up to ~90% power saving). A field campaign in a 50 MW mountainous wind farm to investigate the effects of icing events on the performance degradation of multi-megawatt (1.5MW) wind turbines by using a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and an Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV) equipped with a high-resolution digital camera will also introduced briefly.