Multifunctional Nanocomposites for Offshore Wind Turbine Blades: Materials, Processing and Performance

Author(s):  
Jihua Gou ◽  
Fei Liang ◽  
Yong Tang ◽  
Kuo-Chi Lin ◽  
Chan Ham ◽  
...  

Energy is an essential ingredient of socio-economic development and economic growth. Renewable energy sources like wind energy is indigenous and can help in reducing the dependency on fossil fuels. It has been estimated that roughly 10 million MW of energy are continuously available in the earth’s wind. Wind energy provides a variable and environmental friendly option and national energy security at a time when decreasing global reserves of fossil fuels threatens the long-term sustainability of global economy. Wind energy is the only power generation technology that can deliver the necessary cuts in CO2 in the critical period up to 2020, when greenhouse cases must peak and begin to decline to avoid dangerous climate change. Over the past ten years, global wind power capacity has continued to grow at an average cumulative rate of over 30%, and 2008 was another record year with more than 27 GW of new installations, bringing the total up to over 120 GW.

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hicham Boudounit ◽  
Mostapha Tarfaoui ◽  
Dennoun Saifaoui ◽  
Mourad Nachtane

Wind energy is one among the most promising renewable energy sources, and hence there is fast growth of wind energy farm implantation over the last decade, which is expected to be even faster in the coming years. Wind turbine blades are complex structures considering the different scientific fields involved in their study. Indeed, the study of blade performance involves fluid mechanics (aerodynamic study), solids mechanics (the nature of materials, the type of solicitations …), and the fluid coupling structure (IFS). The scope of the present work is to investigate the mechanical performances and structural integrity of a large offshore wind turbine blade under critical loads using blade element momentum. The resulting pressure was applied to the blade by the use of a user subroutine “DLOAD” implemented in ABAQUS finite element analysis software. The main objective is to identify and predict the zones which are sensitive to damage and failure as well as to evaluate the potential of composite materials (carbon fiber and glass fiber) and their effect on reduction of rotor’s weight, as well as the increase of resistance to wear, and stiffness.


Author(s):  
M. Tarfaoui ◽  
M. Nachtane ◽  
H. Boudounit

Abstract World energy demand has increased immediately and is expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future. Therefore, an overall change of energy consumption continuously from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and low service and maintenance price are the benefits of using renewable energies such as using wind turbines as an electricity generator. In this context, offshore wind power refers to the development of wind parks in bodies of water to produce electricity from wind. Better wind speeds are available offshore compared to on land, so offshore wind power's contribution in terms of electricity supplied is higher. However, these structures are very susceptible to degradation of their mechanical properties considering various hostile loads. The scope of this work is the study of the damage noticed in full-scale 48 m fiberglass composite blades for offshore wind turbine. In this paper, the most advanced features currently available in finite element (FE) abaqus/Implicit have been employed to simulate the response of blades for a sound knowledge of the mechanical behavior of the structures and then localize the susceptible sections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-553
Author(s):  
Yan-fei Chen ◽  
Zhi-peng Zang ◽  
Shao-hua Dong ◽  
Chuan Ao ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip W. Richards ◽  
D. Todd Griffth ◽  
Dewey H. Hodges

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tarfaoui ◽  
O. R. Shah ◽  
M. Nachtane

In order to obtain an optimal design of composite offshore wind turbine blade, take into account all the structural properties and the limiting conditions applied as close as possible to real cases. This work is divided into two stages: the aerodynamic design and the structural design. The optimal blade structural configuration was determined through a parametric study by using a finite element method. The skin thickness, thickness and width of the spar flange, and thickness, location, and length of the front and rear spar web were varied until design criteria were satisfied. The purpose of this article is to provide the designer with all the tools required to model and optimize the blades. The aerodynamic performance has been covered in this study using blade element momentum (BEM) method to calculate the loads applied to the turbine blade during service and extreme stormy conditions, and the finite element analysis was performed by using abaqus code to predict the most critical damage behavior and to apprehend and obtain knowledge of the complex structural behavior of wind turbine blades. The approach developed based on the nonlinear finite element analysis using mean values for the material properties and the failure criteria of Hashin to predict failure modes in large structures and to identify the sensitive zones.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 443-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Dashtkar ◽  
Homayoun Hadavinia ◽  
M Necip Sahinkaya ◽  
Neil A Williams ◽  
Samireh Vahid ◽  
...  

Wind blades are the most expensive parts of wind turbines made from fibre-reinforced polymer composites. The blades play a critical role on the energy production, but they are prone to damage like any other composite components. Leading edge (LE) erosion of the wind turbine blades is one of the common damages, causing a reduction in the annual energy production especially in offshore wind turbine farms. This erosion can be caused by rain, sand and flying solid particles. Coating the blade against erosion using appropriate materials can drastically reduce these losses and hence is of great interest. The sol–gel technique is a convenient method to manufacture thin film coatings, which can protect the blades against the rain erosion, while having negligible effect on the weight of the blades. This article provides an extensive review of the liquid erosion mechanism, water erosion testing procedures and the contributing factors to the erosion of the LE of wind turbine blades. Techniques for improving the erosion resistance of the LE using carbon nanotubes and graphene nano-additives are also discussed.


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