Abstract: The icing characteristics of rotating blade of a small-scaled Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) and the aerodynamics performance changes of the iced blade airfoil and rotor were researched by wind tunnel tests and numerical simulation in order to provide technology reference for establishing the more complex test system for large scale Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine with rotating blade and study the icing mechanism and anti-icing and de-icing technology. The experiments were performed in an icing wind tunnel designed by Northeast Agricultural University using natural low temperature in cold winter. The test model was a small-scaled VAWT with 2 blades with NACA0018 airfoil. The icing accretions on rotating blade surface under 5 tip speed ratios were tested and recorded. Wind turbine blades were frozen over the entire surface of the blade. Ice shape asymmetry can be found on the blade with the increasing of tip speed ratio. Furthermore, the lift coefficient of iced blade decreased and drag coefficient increased with the increasing of tip speed ratio and the amount of ice based on the results of numerical simulation. The power coefficients of the rotor were also decreased. It can be also found that the change degree of pressure field and velocity field around the iced blade depended on rotating angles, which was the main reason affecting the aerodynamic performance of blade and the turbine.