A review of impact loads on composite wind turbine blades: Impact threats and classification

A fiber-reinforced composite wind turbine blade (WTB) is exposed to numerous impact threats during its service life causing damages that can be detrimental to its structural integrity. Currently, impact loads are not considered during blade design, so high safety factors are introduced, which result in a conservative design. However, as wind...

Multilayer Leading Edge Protection systems of Wind Turbine Blades: A review of material technology and damage modelling

In the immediate future, wind power will provide more electricity than any other technology based on renewable and low-emission energy sources. As a result, the size of offshore wind turbines has increased to harvest more wind energy in order to achieve the 2050 EU carbon neutral targets. The use of composites opens great prospects in the design...

Effect of dwell stage in the cure cycle on toughening of epoxy using thermoplastic multilayers

Epoxies with high cross-linking densities are brittle and hence have a low fracture toughness. However, different methods are known to increase fracture toughness. Numerous approaches are known to incorporate a second phase into the epoxy matrix, such as rubber, inorganic nanoparticles or thermoplastics, referred to as bulk resin modification....

Bondline thickness effects on damage tolerance of adhesive joints subjected to localized impact damages: Application to leading edge of wind turbine blades

The leading edges of wind turbine blades are adhesively bonded composite sections that are susceptible to impact loads during offshore installation. The impact loads can cause localized damages at the leading edges that necessitate damage tolerance assessment. However, owing to the complex material combinations together with varying bondline...

Minimum leading edge protection application length to combat rain-induced erosion of wind turbine blades

Leading edge erosion (LEE) repairs of wind turbine blades (WTBs) involve infield application of leading edge protection (LEP) solutions. The industry is currently aiming to use factory based LEP coatings that can applied to the WTBs before they are shipped out for installation. However, one of the main challenges related to these solutions is...

A computational framework for coating fatigue analysis of wind turbine blades due to rain erosion

The rain-induced fatigue damage in the wind turbine blade coating has attracted increasing attention owing to significant repair and maintenance costs. The present paper develops an improved computational framework for analyzing the wind turbine blade coating fatigue induced by rain erosion. The paper first presents an extended stochastic...

A probabilistic long-term framework for site-specific erosion analysis of wind turbine blades: A case study of 31 Dutch sites

Rain-induced leading-edge erosion (LEE) of wind turbine blades (WTBs) is associated with high repair and maintenance costs. The effects of LEE can be triggered in less than 1 to 2 years for some wind turbine sites, whereas it may take several years for others. In addition, the growth of erosion may also differ for different blades and...

A probabilistic rainfall model to estimate the leading-edge lifetime of wind turbine blade coating system

Rain-induced leading-edge erosion of wind turbine blades is associated with high repair and maintenance costs. For efficient operation and maintenance, erosion models are required that provide estimates of blade coating lifetime at a real scale. In this study, a statistical rainfall model is established that describes probabilistic...

Numerical investigation of rain droplet impact on offshore wind turbine blades under different rainfall conditions: A parametric study

The leading edge of a fiber composite wind turbine blade (WTB) is prone to erosion damages due to repeated rain droplet impact during its service life. Such damages are critical to the blade's aerodynamic as well as structural performance, ultimately resulting in substantial repair costs. An effective design of a coating material for WTB is...