Thermoplastic Composite Wind Turbine Blades
An Integrated Design Approach
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Abstract
This thesis proposes a new structural design concept for future large wind turbine blades based on fully recyclable thermoplastic composites (TPC). With respect to material properties, cost and processing, reactively processed anionic polyamide-6 (APA-6) has been identified as the most promising thermoplastic polymer system for these future wind turbine blades. After mechanically characterizing in situ polymerized APA-6/glass composites and assessing their recyclability, TPC oriented blade designs were developed following an integrated finite-element approach based on topology and size optimization techniques. Results showed that when compared to today’s classic epoxy-based blade design, this TPC oriented design could reduced blade mass by 3% for identical structural performances. Furthermore, due to the presence of ribs in the design, aerodynamic profile and shear web distortion can be significantly reduced.