Characterisation of delamination failure in composite wind turbine blade using refined delamination factor
by V.A. Nagarajan, S. Sundaram, J. Selwin Rajadurai
International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology (IJCAET), Vol. 3, No. 5/6, 2011

Abstract: Wind turbine is now being used as a generic term for machines with rotating blades that convert the kinetic energy of wind into useful power. Utilisation of renewable wind energy in India increases in many folds from the last decade of 20th century. The wind turbine blades are fabricated using glass fibre reinforced composite materials. Wind turbine blades are complex section, since it includes the aerofoil section of varying thickness from leading to trailing edge, varying chord length from hub section to tip section, inclusion of blade twist angle and pitch angle along its length. In order to improve the strength of the blades under varying loading conditions, spars are embedded in it. The spars are fastened with the composite shells of the blades using bolted connections. In order to affect this fastening, holes of appropriate size were drilled in the composite laminates. Drilling is probably the machining process most widely applied to composite materials; nevertheless, the damage induced by this operation may reduce drastically the component performance. In order to establish the damage level, delamination is measured quantitatively using digital means. A comparison between the conventional (FD) and adjusted (FDA) delamination factor is presented. In order to quantify the delamination effectively, refined delamination factor (FDR) is proposed.

Online publication date: Tue, 30-Sep-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology (IJCAET):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com