Volume
11, Issue 5, 2002
Full
scale structural experimental investigation of an e-glass/epoxy composite
wind turbine blade
C.
Kong*, Y. Sugiyama**, J. Lee*** and C. Soutis***
*
Division of Aerospace and Naval Architectural Engineering, Chosun
University, Kwangju, Korea ** Department of Aerospace Engineering, Osaka
Prefecture University, Sakai-shi, Japan *** Department of Aeronautics,
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK.
*Author
to whom correspondence should be addressed.
(Received 1/02;
accepted 10/02)
ABSTRACT
A structural
test of a new wind turbine rotor blade was performed to evaluate design
uncertainties due to material defects, analytical assumptions and
production process, and quantify their effect on its structural integrity.
In the full-scale static strength test, the measuring parameters were the
blade weight, location of centre of gravity, in-plane strains, deflections
and failure loads. Performing a three-point bending test of the full-scale
(size) blade simulated the aerodynamic load experienced by the rotor
blade. Analytical predictions for mass of the blade, centre of gravity
location, blade tip deflection and the first flap-wise natural frequency
were in good agreement with the measured values. The difference was less
than 4%, indicating that the blade response was accurately modelled by a
linear analysis. The axial strain of the blade skin was also measured at
several blade stations: 5.56 m, 11.59 m and 13.43 m at an applied load of
20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of the maximum design load. Acceptable
agreement was achieved between experimental and theoretical strain
results, using the Tsai-Wu failure criterion.
KEYWORDS: Composite
wind turbine blade, Full-scale structural test, Failure analysis
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