On the wind blade's surface roughness due to dust accumulation and its impact on the wind turbine's performance: A heuristic QBlade-based modeling assessment

The development of wind projects requires good knowledge of energy production that depends on the rotor aerodynamics and its potential of making optimal use of wind power. It has been noted that dust accumulation across the rotor's blade surfaces can seriously affect the overall wind farm (WF) performance and lead to severe energy losses. In the present work, surface roughness that occurs on the wind blade surfaces due to dust accumulation and its possible effect on wind turbine's performance, are the subjects studied. For this purpose, a heuristic modeling assessment was conducted by means of the widely used open source tool QBlade. All available data, pertain to dust accumulation in four different areas, at which, the evolution of the phenomenon and its effect on the aerodynamic performance regarding energy production were studied. It was revealed that for low wind speeds (<10 m/s) no significant effect on the aerodynamic power was observed. This has led all manufacturers, decision makers, and wind farm operators to comprehend phenomena influencing the wind turbine's performance, which were neglected so far.