Fatigue Failure of a Composite Wind Turbine Blade at the Trailing Edge

2018 ◽  
Vol 382 ◽  
pp. 191-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zu Jin Pan ◽  
Jian Zhong Wu ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Xin Hua Zhao

The downtime problem of wind turbine increases due to fatigue damage of wind turbine blades, which is even more crucial in the larger blades. One of the critical failure modes is the blade trailing edge failure, which can result in the trailing edge joint cracked. In this paper, we experienced that abnormal sound was happened in the trailing edge at the cross-section in the max chord during fatigue testing of a 2 MW full-scale wind turbine blade according to IEC61400-23. Through the conditional monitoring of the trailing edge, the delamination between GFRP and balsa wood is caused by stress concentration. The abnormal sound is happened due to GFRP beat the balsa wood when the blade vibrates in the edgewise direction. Moreover, the sound is amplified because the introduction of air due to the delamination. The local stress distribution and stability factors are computed through FEM methods, the program that increasing the core materials in the trailing edge is proposed. Therefore the structure reliability in the trailing edge is improved.

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1711-1725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaclyn Solimine ◽  
Christopher Niezrecki ◽  
Murat Inalpolat

This article details the implementation of a novel passive structural health monitoring approach for damage detection in wind turbine blades using airborne sound. The approach utilizes blade-internal microphones to detect trends, shifts, or spikes in the sound pressure level of the blade cavity using a limited network of internally distributed airborne acoustic sensors, naturally occurring passive system excitation, and periodic measurement windows. A test campaign was performed on a utility-scale wind turbine blade undergoing fatigue testing to demonstrate the ability of the method for structural health monitoring applications. The preliminary audio signal processing steps used in the study, which were heavily influenced by those methods commonly utilized in speech-processing applications, are discussed in detail. Principal component analysis and K-means clustering are applied to the feature-space representation of the data set to identify any outliers (synonymous with deviations from the normal operation of the wind turbine blade) in the measurements. The performance of the system is evaluated based on its ability to detect those structural events in the blade that are identified by making manual observations of the measurements. The signal processing methods proposed within the article are shown to be successful in detecting structural and acoustic aberrations experienced by a full-scale wind turbine blade undergoing fatigue testing. Following the assessment of the data, recommendations are given to address the future development of the approach in terms of physical limitations, signal processing techniques, and machine learning options.


Author(s):  
Michael Desmond ◽  
Darris White ◽  
William Barott

Structural testing of wind turbine blades is required for designing reliable, structurally efficient blades. Full-scale blade fatigue testing conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) provides blade manufacturers quantitative information on design details including design assessment, manufacturing quality, and design durability. Blade tests can be conducted as a single axis test (flapwise or lead-lag) or a dual-axis test (flapwise and lead-lag simultaneously). Dual-axis testing is generally the preferred full-scale test method as it simulates to a greater extent the characteristic loading the blade is subjected to in the field. Historically, wind turbine blade fatigue testing has been performed through forced displacement methods using hydraulic systems which directly apply load to the blade. More efficient methods of fatigue testing are being developed at the NWTC that employ resonant excitation systems to reduce hydraulic supply requirements, increase the test speed, and improve distributed load matching. In the case of a dual-axis resonant test, the blade is excited through multiple actuators at two distinct frequencies corresponding to the flapwise and lead-lag frequencies. A primary objective of a dual-axis test is to test the blade to equivalent damage moments in multiple axes. A code was developed to simulate the performance of the dual-axis resonant test system, comparing the predictions to actual test results. Modeling of this test system was performed using a MATLAB script that integrates the NREL FAST code with a commercial dynamic simulator package ADAMS. This code has the advantage over existing methods to more accurately simulate the coupled response between the flapwise and lead-lag directions. In summary, this paper will provide information on the modeling of wind turbine blade dual-axis resonant test systems.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Gonzalez ◽  
Xabier Munduate

This work undertakes an aerodynamic analysis over the parked and the rotating NREL Phase VI wind turbine blade. The experimental sequences from NASA Ames wind tunnel selected for this study respond to the parked blade and the rotating configuration, both for the upwind, two-bladed wind turbine operating at nonyawed conditions. The objective is to bring some light into the nature of the flow field and especially the type of stall behavior observed when 2D aerofoil steady measurements are compared to the parked blade and the latter to the rotating one. From averaged pressure coefficients together with their standard deviation values, trailing and leading edge separated flow regions have been found, with the limitations of the repeatability of the flow encountered on the blade. Results for the parked blade show the progressive delay from tip to root of the trailing edge separation process, with respect to the 2D profile, and also reveal a local region of leading edge separated flow or bubble at the inner, 30% and 47% of the blade. For the rotating blade, results at inboard 30% and 47% stations show a dramatic suppression of the trailing edge separation, and the development of a leading edge separation structure connected with the extra lift.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (2) ◽  
pp. 4079-4087
Author(s):  
Murat Inalpolat ◽  
Caleb Traylor

Noise generated by turbulent boundary layer over the trailing edge of a wind turbine blade under various flow conditions is predicted and analyzed for structural health monitoring purposes. Wind turbine blade monitoring presents a challenge to wind farm operators, and an in-blade structural health monitoring system would significantly reduce O&M costs. Previous studies into structural health monitoring of blades have demonstrated the feasibility of designing a passive detection system based on monitoring the flow-generated acoustic spectra. A beneficial next step is identifying the robustness of such a system to wind turbine blades under different flow conditions. To examine this, a range of free stream air velocities from 5 m/s to 20 m/s and a range of rotor speeds from 5 rpm to 20 rpm are used in a reduced-order model of the flow-generated sound in the trailing edge turbulent boundary layer. The equivalent lumped acoustics sources are predicted based on the turbulent flow simulations, and acoustic spectra are calculated using acoustic ray tracing. Each case is evaluated based on the changes detected when damage is present. These results can be used to identify wind farms that would most benefit from this monitoring system to increase efficiency in deployment of turbines.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Castorrini ◽  
Paolo Venturini ◽  
Fabrizio Gerboni ◽  
Alessandro Corsini ◽  
Franco Rispoli

Abstract Rain erosion of wind turbine blades represents an interesting topic of study due to its non-negligible impact on annual energy production of the wind farms installed in rainy sites. A considerable amount of recent research works has been oriented to this subject, proposing rain erosion modelling, performance losses prediction, structural issues studies, etc. This work aims to present a new method to predict the damage on a wind turbine blade. The method is applied here to study the effect of different rain conditions and blade coating materials, on the damage produced by the rain over a representative section of a reference 5MW turbine blade operating in normal turbulence wind conditions.


Author(s):  
Alka Gupta ◽  
Abdulrahman Alsultan ◽  
R. S. Amano ◽  
Sourabh Kumar ◽  
Andrew D. Welsh

Energy is the heart of today’s civilization and the demand seems to be increasing with our growing population. Alternative energy solutions are the future of energy, whereas the fossil-based fuels are finite and deemed to become extinct. The design of the wind turbine blade is the main governing factor that affects power generation from the wind turbine. Different airfoils, angle of twist and blade dimensions are the parameters that control the efficiency of the wind turbine. This study is aimed at investigating the aerodynamic performance of the wind turbine blade. In the present paper, we discuss innovative blade designs using the NACA 4412 airfoil, comparing them with a straight swept blade. The wake region was measured in the lab with a straight blade. All the results with different designs of blades were compared for their performance. A complete three-dimensional computational analysis was carried out to compare the power generation in each case for different wind speeds. It was found from the numerical analysis that the slotted blade yielded the most power generation among the other blade designs.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1088-1096
Author(s):  
Viktus Kolo Koten ◽  
Syukri Himran ◽  
Nasaruddin Salam ◽  
Luther Sule

2014 ◽  
Vol 1014 ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
Zhi Qiang Xu ◽  
Jian Huang

Wind turbines consists of three key parts, namely, wind wheels (including blades, hub, etc.), cabin (including gearboxes, motors, controls, etc.) and the tower and Foundation. Wind turbine wheel is the most important part ,which is made up of blades and hubs. Blade has a good aerodynamic shape, which will produce aerodynamic in the airflow rotation, converting wind energy into mechanical energy, and then, driving the generator into electrical energy by gearbox pace. Wind turbine operates in the natural environment, their load wind turbine blades are more complex. Therefore load calculations and strength analysis for wind turbine design is very important. Wind turbine blades are core components of wind turbines, so understanding of their loads and dynamics by which the load on the wind turbine blade design is of great significance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Bin Qu ◽  
Zhou Sun ◽  
Fang Feng ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Guoqiang Tong ◽  
...  

This paper describes the method of preparing strong hydrophobic polypyrrole (PPy) on wind turbine blades. The water contact angle of strong hydrophobic PPy coatings was 127.2°. The strong hydrophobic PPy coatings exhibited excellent anti-icing properties. The maximum icing weight of strong hydrophobic PPy coating blade was almost 0.10 g while the maximum icing weight of no coating blade was found to be 26.13 g. The maximum icing thickness of a strong hydrophobic PPy coating blade was only 1.08 mm. The current research will provide a better technique to create anti-icing coatings on wind turbine blades and other outdoor equipment.


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