Open AccessEffects of composite fiber orientation on wind turbine blade buckling resistance
Author(s) -
Cox Kevin,
Echtermeyer Andreas
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
wind energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1099-1824
pISSN - 1095-4244
DOI - 10.1002/we.1681
Subject(s) - turbine blade , buckling , blade (archaeology) , composite number , structural engineering , materials science , fiber , turbine , orientation (vector space) , composite material , engineering , mechanical engineering , geometry , mathematics
This paper utilized the inherent directional properties of composite materials to increase the critical buckling load of a 70 m carbon/glass hybrid wind turbine blade. The effect of changing the fiber orientations of the less stiff, off‐axis glass fiber plies (referred to as stability plies in this paper) was studied via nonlinear finite element buckling simulations. The orientation of the stability plies was found to influence the onset of the Brazier effect, which further influenced blade stability and buckling failure location. Although both blade weight and laminate thickness remained constant, an increase in critical buckling load of 8% was achieved with a negligible change in bending stiffness. The more stable blade allowed for removal of material leading to a decrease in maximum laminate thickness and a drop in blade mass of 3.3%. Modifications to the ply stacking sequence and carbon fiber usage were also considered and were found to affect the buckling load but not necessarily the optimum fiber orientation of the stability plies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.