Passive Control of a Wind Turbine Blade Using Composite Material

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Aziz ◽  
John Gale ◽  
Arya Ebrahimpour ◽  
Marco P. Schoen
Keyword(s):  
Composite Material ◽  
Carbon Fiber ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Carbon Fibers ◽  
Glass Fibers ◽  
Bending Moment ◽  
Wind Turbine Blade ◽  
Partial Replacement

The weight and the cost of a wind turbine are two important factors that make wind energy competitive with other energy sources. The weight of the rotor is typically 40–80% of the total weight of the system. Thus, lowering cost by reducing the weight of the blade is an important consideration. Another significant factor is the operational life of the machine. At present, a wind turbine’s life span is about 108 cycles or 20 years of continuous service. Innovative design solutions are needed in order to meet the criteria of improved stiffness, fatigue life, reliability, and efficiency. The directional property of an anisotropic composite material can be used to passively control wind turbine blade geometry in fluctuating wind speeds. Anisotropic materials show various levels of elastic coupling, based upon the ply angle in the layers. Structural behavior that exhibits both bending and twisting due to a pure bending load is known as twist-bend coupling. This type of behavior can be used for load reductions, particularly fatigue loads. The idea is to allow the blade to unload (reducing the speed) by allowing the wind induced bending moment to twist the blade. Increments in bending moment produce an increment in the twist that lowers the aerodynamically produced load. Higher blade stiffness can be achieved by full or partial replacement of glass fiber with carbon fiber. Carbon fibers are not used extensively on commercial wind turbine blades as they are more costly than glass fiber. The main objectives of this work are: (1) design a baseline model (made from glass fibers) of the wind turbine blade in accordance with published airfoil data; (2) conduct a finite element analysis of the blade and determine stresses, and strain within the blade; (3) develop a hybrid blade design by replacing the glass fibers with carbon fibers in the spar cap; and (4) validate the feasibility of implementing bend-twist coupling in the wind turbine blade by studying stresses, and strain behavior. By giving different orientation in the carbon fiber and changing the fiber layer, different designs are analyzed with regard to the above listed criteria.

Layup Analyzing of a Carbon/Glass Hybrid Composite Wind Turbine Blade Using Finite Element Analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 49-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Chen Lin
Keyword(s):  
Finite Element ◽  
Carbon Fiber ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Carbon Fibers ◽  
Fiber Composite ◽  
Wind Turbine Blade ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Carbon Fiber Composite

This thesis use AOC15/50 blade as baseline model which is a composite wind turbine blade made of glass/epoxy for a horizontal axis wind turbine. A finite element modeling of composite wind turbine blade was created using the SHELL element of ANSYS. Then we study how to use the carbon fiber material replaces the glass fiber to make the hybrid blade, and find a suitable layup to improve the performance of the blade. The hybrid blade was made through introducing carbon fibers. Different models, with introducing different number of carbon fibers, 75% carbon fibers replace unidirectional glass fibers in spar cap of blade model which can achieve best structure performance. The wind turbine blades are often fabricated by hand using multiple of glass fiber-reinforced polyester resin or glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resin. As commercial machines get bigger, this could not to meet the demands. The advantages of carbon fiber composite materials are used by blade producer. Studies show that carbon fiber has high strength-to-weight ratio and resistance fatigue properties. Carbon fiber is mixed with epoxy resin to make into carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer is the one of best blade materials for resistance bad weather. The stiffness of carbon fiber composite is 2 or 3 times higher than glass fiber composite [1], but the cost of carbon fiber composite is 10 times higher than glass fiber composite. If all of wind turbine blades are made of carbon fiber composite, it will be very expensive. Therefore carbon/glass fiber hybrid composite blade has become a research emphasis in the field of blade materials. This paper gives an example of finite element modeling composite wind turbine blade in ANSYS by means of the medium-length blade of AOC 15/50 horizontal axis wind turbine. This model can be directly used in dynamics analysis and does not need to be imported from the CAD software into finite element program. This finite element modeling of composite wind turbine blade was created using the SHELL element of ANSYS. Then we study how to use the carbon fiber material replaces the glass fiber to make the hybrid blade, and find a suitable lay-up to improve the performance of the blade.

Flow Behavior in the Resin Infusion of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Wind Turbine Blade

2013 ◽  
Vol 686 ◽  
pp. 118-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Azuan Mohd Azlan ◽  
Muhamad Ridzuan Abdul Latif ◽  
Mohamad Zaki Abdullah ◽  
Kamal Arif Zainal Abidin ◽  
Azmi Abdul Wahab
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Wind Turbine Blade ◽  
Fiber Reinforced Polymer ◽  
Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer ◽  
Resin Infusion ◽  
Reinforced Polymer ◽  
Glass Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Over Time

This paper presents the monitoring of resin flow during resin infusion process in the fabrication of glass fiber reinforced polymer GRP wind turbine blade (WTB). Epoxy type of resin was used as the matrix and its viscosity and gel time were determined in-house. Next, resin infusions were done to obtain the permeability of the glass fiber in different directions (longitudinal and transverse), given the specific number of layers. The fabrication of composite WTB by resin infusion was conducted with the introduction of 'moldless' setup, where both upper and lower skins are covered by flexible mould/vacuum bag without any rigid female mould. However, a wooden core is used and acts as an “inner” mould to obtain the wind turbine shape. The whole infusion process was video recorded and the flow front pattern was traced at certain time intervals to investigate the infused percentage area over time. Afterward, guided by the traces of flow patterns on grid and video observation, 3D models of resin infused at interval times are generated in a CAD software. From the models, the area infused was determined. Percentage of area infused over time was compared with the analytical plot based on Darcy's law. A good agreement was found between the experimental observation and the theoretical plot.

RANCANGAN DAN ANALISIS STRUKTUR SUDU TURBIN ANGIN LPN 10000 E

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sulistyo Atmadi ◽  
Firman Hartono
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Safety Factor ◽  
Bending Moment ◽  
High Strength ◽  
Wind Turbine Blade ◽  
Unidirectional Reinforcement ◽  
Composite Blade ◽  
Operational Load

Structure of the LPN 10000 E wind turbine blade has been manufactured and its structural analysis to find out the strenght of this structure during its operation has also been conducted. The method of aero bending moment and centrifugal bending moment and load has been used while neglegting frcitional and torsional load. The analysis is obtained for composite blade strengthened by high strength carbon unidirectional reinforcement composite. With safety factor of 1.3 minimum, it was concluded that the blade is strong enough to use at its designed operational load.

Structural Analysis of a Wind Turbine Blade

2013 ◽  
Vol 768 ◽  
pp. 40-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Benham ◽  
K. Thyagarajan ◽  
Sylvester J. John ◽  
S. Prakash
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Carbon Fiber ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Fiber Composites ◽  
Wind Turbine Blade ◽  
Kevlar Fiber ◽  
Ansys Apdl ◽  
Drag Ratio ◽  
Lift To Drag Ratio

Wind turbines blades of propeller type are made according to various blade profiles such as NACA, LS, and LM. There are many factors for selecting a profile. One significant factor is the chord length, which depend on various values throughout the blade. In this work a NACA 4412 profile was created using DESIGN FOIL software to obtain the coordinates of a wind turbine blade in PRO/E. Aerodynamic analysis was done on the created design. Maximum lift to drag ratio was calculated by varying angle of attack of the blade. To find a suitable composite for wind turbine blade, Modal and Static analysis were performed on the modified design using Carbon fiber, E-Glass, S-Glass and Kevlar fiber composites in ANSYS APDL 12.0 software.

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