Composite materials

for wind turbine blades

Lars P. Mikkelsen
Learning objectives

After this lecture you will be able to:

•Describe the use of uniaxial composites in wind turbine blades

•Calculate the stiffness and strength of a composite material

•Estimate the fatigue limit of a composite

Composite for wind turbine blades:
Fibre reinforced polymers

Typical composite material:
• Stiff, strong and brittle fibre material
– glass and carbon fibres

• Soft, weak and ductile matrix material

– epoxy or polyester matrix
u
• In-between stiffness and strength values
– GFRP and CFRP
E
u


Uni-directional composites Cross-section
in a wind turbine blade of load-carrying UD composite

1m
1 mm

Fibres
Key materials requirements
- high stiffness
- high fatigue resistance (strength) Matrix
Stiffness of composite in the fibre direction: Ec
X-ray scan model
Composite Mechanical model
Vm c Vm Em
Vf

Ef
Vf E f c
Em

– Parameters: • Voigt assumption: f  m

• Stiffness of fibre and matrix – “Rules of Mixture”
E f ; Em
• Volume fraction of fibre and matrix
Ec  V f E f  Vm Em
V f  Vm  1
Calculate the stiffness • Calculate the stiffness from
composite content
E
Ec  V f E f  (1  V f ) Em
• Calculate the fibre volume fraction
Ef from a measured stiffness
0.5  V f  0.6 Ec  Em
Vf 
E f  Em
• Transverse stiffness much lower
Ec
1 V f Vm
Ec '  
Ec ' E f Em
Em
• Density (Rules of Mixture)
0.5 0.6 1 Vf c  V f  f  (1  V f )  m
0
Tensile strength 

Tensile strength of a composite

 fu
 cu  V f  fu  Vm m *

Stresses in matrix at  cu
fibre failure:
 fu
m 
*
Em
Ef
 mu


Strains in fibres (and matrix)
 fu
 fu 
at composite failure: Ef
Fatigue curve for typical uni-directional GFRP
 min
R  0.1
 max
800
100 R = 0.10
700  max R = 0.10 run out

50% Basquin line (S

600 independent)
Lower 95% confi.

 [MPa]
500
Max Stress (MPa)

55
N failure  2.83 1025  max 7.75
400

300

with  max in [MPa]

200
 min 10
100
0
0
0 5 10 15
1000 10000 100000 N [-] 1000000 10000000
Number of cycles to faliure
Summary

In this lecture you have learn how to:

•Describe the use of uniaxial composites in wind turbine blades

•Calculate the stiffness and strength of a composite material

•Estimate the fatigue limit of a composite