International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-022-00891-4

SHORT ORIGINAL PAPER

The stiffness assessment of the blade composite structure using

a proposed sub-model arbitrary rectangular with delamination effect
Omar Rajad1 · Hamid Mounir1

Received: 12 November 2021 / Accepted: 7 April 2022

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature 2022

Abstract
In this paper, the vibration of a stratified composite plate has been investigated using finite element analysis. The first order
shear deformation theory (FSDT) together with Hamilton’s principle approaches are detailed for eventual calculation of natural
frequencies; thus, the approach evaluates the natural frequencies based on FE using Ansys Mechanical and Ansys composite
PrePost based on the FSDT method. A composite plate is assessed with and without artificial delamination to interpret dynamic
performances about composite laminates of the blade structure. Consequently, a set of analysis studies has been carried out on
fiber’s orientation, laminates number, boundary conditions (BC), delamination area and their orientation. The most relevant
findings from this research paper can be evaluated as those natural frequencies are decreased due to delamination progression
of 7% at high vibration mode level; therefore, it reduces the robustness of the blade structure. In addition, the influence of
BC is discussed regarding blade structure. As alternative solutions for revealing rigidity, composite materials architecture is
defined as density degree, fiber orientation, BC and delamination areas, which are the main parameter to improving vibration
response of the overall blade structure.

Keywords Composite laminate plate · Modal analysis · FSDT · FEA · Delamination modeling · Composite blade structure

Abbreviations 1 Introduction

FEA Finite element analysis Nowadays, the interest concerning the research, develop-
FSDT First-order shear deformation theory ment and advancement of sustainable energy technologies
HSDT High-order shear deformation theory has increased [1, 2]. Wind energy technologies are con-
CLPT Classical laminates plate theory sidered as one of the most important solutions to adapt to
ACP Ansys composite prepost fulfill this need. Composite materials are employed in many
BC Boundary conditions wind blades such as wind energy systems, because of their
HAWTB Horizontal axis wind turbine blade accurate mechanical properties and exclusively their low den-
FRP Fabric reinforced polymer sities as to classic materials [3, 4]. In fact, mastering the
FEM Finite element method vibration analysis of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blades
DOF Degrees of freedom (HAWTB) is a crucial and decisive aim, because it helps to
WTB Wind turbine blade improve their lifespan. Several composite materials are cur-
rently used to manufacture the blades that would be used
in various fields due to their important performance ratio
weight/strength-stiffness and high damping. For instance,
these kinds of materials are used in aerospace, automotive,
military weapons and ship building industries. The dynamic
behavior of wind turbine blade structure needs to be strongly
B Omar Rajad
rajadomar@gmail.com enhanced to withstand the cyclic loading. Free linear and non-
linear vibration analysis are employed to obtain the resonant
1 EMISys Research Team, Engineering 3S Research Center, frequencies [5–7].
Mohammadia School of Engineers, Mohammed V University
in Rabat, Avenue Ibn Sina, Agdal, BP 765, Rabat, Morocco

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In practice, the present ways can be employed to shift a
resonant frequency and optimize the vibration response of an
example of system [5]:
• Adding stiffness increases the natural frequency as
improving quadratic moment in bending.
• Increasing damping decreases the ultimate response how-
ever enlarges the response length.
• Adding mass reduces the resonant frequency as the fact
that equilibrating a rotating system.
The frequencies of the multilayered composite plates
depend on theory of the composite plate specimen that has
been used to represent the kinematics of the deformed and
approach the solution anticipated. In fact, the plate theories
such as FSDT [8, 9], higher-order shear deformation theory
(HSDT) [10], and classical laminates plate theory (CLPT)
[11] are used to model the kinematic and stress field of the
deformed shape of the composite structures of the wind blade.
The failure modes [12] decrease the mechanical perfor-
mance ratio weight/strength; therefore, the natural frequen-
cies of the blade are simultaneously affected. In other hand,
the delamination failure is one of the most decisive failure
to be considered during fatigue test of a specimen or a struc-
ture because the material stiffness and robustness decrease.
Consequently, the health monitoring of a composite struc-
ture need to be strongly performed and studied especially
for delamination [13–15]. The literature [16] aims to review
major developments in the analysis and characterization of
buckling driven delamination, which is due to the low inter-
laminar strengths of the fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)
laminates. Besides, the authors [17] investigate the effect of
multiple delamination on the compressive, tensile and flex-
ural strength of E-glass/epoxy composites to evaluate their
effects on the first critical buckling loads. Several artificial
delamination are used with different sizes to understand and
predict the overall stiffness reduction within the structure and
predict the damage tolerance for a specimen [18].
The structural optimization of composite materials are
increasing in several engineering areas where high stiffness
and strength-to-weight ratios, long fatigue life and others
are become acute problems for technical designers [19,
20]. Common types include laminated composites, sand-
wich structures, functionally graded material structures and
nanocomposites as well as smart composite structures are
extremely used in different fields as automotive engineering
[21, 22]. In fact, composite structures are selected, depend-
ing upon the specific technical objectives, by choosing the
individual constituent materials and their volume fractions,
fiber orientation angles, and laminas thickness and number,
as well as the fabrication procedure of the materials. In addi-
tion, the manufacturing of these materials could be exploited
to reinforce them by using metallic nanoparticles [23]. To
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International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
achieve the leading results, an adequate optimization mod-
els or sub-models [24] have to be armed to find practical
solutions satisfying a given set of design constraints of such
composite structures as wind and marine blade, top speed
cars and other applications. As, previously defined, the com-
posite materials are employed in automotive structure, the
literature [20] use several design variables to create a design
of experiment with two steps, including finger shape opti-
mization with eight variables, load, and stress optimization
with two variables as the aim of maximum fatigue definition.
The optimization results are obtained taking in consideration
minimum of stress and weight with the maximal of applied
loading. In fact, the parametric studies of composite materi-
als architecture could be performed to optimize the strength
and endurance of materials as [25, 26]. Optimization proce-
dures take a good attention in other engineering areas as fuel
cells, where several literatures were discussed the effect of
cells design in the mechanical performance as the authors
performed [27, 28] using Taguchi method.
In this work, the vibration of a stratified composite plate
has been investigated to calculate the natural frequencies
using FSDT together with Hamilton’s principle through the
numerical calculations carried out with the ACP module
of Ansys workbench software [29]. In fact, this calculation
approach will help to analyze the natural frequencies of the
blade in two cases: with and without artificial delamination of
the composite structure in order to comprehend the behavior
of a shaped model. Further, the delamination of the structure
is going to be conducted. Consequently, a set of parametric
studies have been performed on the fiber’s orientation, lam-
inates number, boundary conditions, and delamination area
of a cantilever plate.
To improve and research how the wind blade compos-
ite laminates behave under cyclic loading, a free vibration
analysis has been conducted based on a proposed enhance-
ment strategy to predict the local structure behavior of the
composite blade. The skin laminates are stressed to compres-
sion in bottom skin and tension in top skin [12]. In fact, the
strategy considers a specimen arbitrary rectangular built with
composite laminates and several tests have been performed
considering material architecture reflecting delamination’s
effect. Furthermore, proposed configurations for different
parameters have been carried out for a composite plate that
it will be concluded for the blade skin laminates as the den-
sity degree, fiber’ orientation and the boundary conditions
effects. Indeed, the finite element method (FEM) has been
used in these investigations based on the FSDT approach
[30, 31].
In fact, the present technique respects other mechanical
studies of vibration analysis of composite materials of the
blade structure. The present paper is presenting a new way
to predict the behavior of the blade skin laminates at specific
locations using the overall studies of a specimen arbitrary
International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)

rectangular taking into account different parameters to test The strain area is denoting by i j the classic component
stiffness. Firstly, the methodology of FSDT has been detailed of the strain tensor, the in-plane strain vector is presented:
in case of the calculation of natural frequencies. Secondly, the ⎧ ⎫
use of ACP software is to create the model and to implement ⎪
⎨ 11 ⎪⎬
the overall equations to calculate the frequencies, deforma-   22 (2)
tions and stresses. Finally, several parametric studies have ⎪
⎩ 2 ⎪ ⎭
12
been carried out to assess the material structure of the blade at
specific zones to predict the dynamic response of the structure
Affiliate to the displacement representation (Eq. 2), is writ-
using a model arbitrary rectangular. The conclusion about
ten as:
composite materials endurance and fatigue life of the blade
structure is presented for different parametric studies.
  e + zk, (3)

where the lamina strain vector e and the curvature strain vec-
2 Methodology of FSDT tor k are provided by:
⎧ ∂ ⎫
In this mathematical modeling section, the FSDT is presented ⎪
⎨ ∂ x1 0 ⎪⎬
in detail for different areas; displacement, strain and stress.
e  Lu, k  Lϕ, L  0 ∂∂x2 (4)
The FSDT is applied in the case of FE [31] for eventual ⎪
⎩ ∂ ∂ ⎪ ⎭
natural frequencies calculation involving the motion equation ∂ x1 ∂ x2
developed by Hamilton’s Principle. A composite plate  is
considered as a stratified structure, the thickness h: The in-plane strain vector  is a linear function of the
thickness coordinate Z. The out-of-plane strain field vector:
     
  (x1 , x2 , z) ∈ R 3 , z ∈ − h2 , h2 , (x1 , x2 ) ∈  ⊂ R 2 21z
γ  (5)
22z
where the plane Z  0 σ  0 identifies the mid-plane λ.
The typical kth layer lies between the thickness coordinates. The shear deformation is obtained as:
Z  Zk and Z  Zk+1 , such that Z1  -h/2 and Zp+1  h/2,
the stratified plate is fabricated of p layers. γ  ∇w + ϕ (6)
A several hypothesis is presented on two areas stress and
strain. In fact, the FSDT for composite plates is placed on where the symbol ∇ indicates the well-known gradient oper-
the recognized hypothesis: ator.
In the area of stress of a composite lamina, the in-
plane stresses within each lamina are calculated employing
• The transverse stress σzz  0,
the behavior law of composite materials. Especially, it is
• Line elements remain normal to the mid-plane:1z, z 
expected that the body  is obtained assembling in a staking
2z, z  0,
sequence orthotropic layers. Besides, the classic component
• The deformation transverse:zz  0.
of the ⎧ tensor by the σi j and the in-plane stress vector
stress ⎫
⎪
⎨ σ11 ⎬
k ⎪
The following conditions are satisfied by the σikj  σ22 k for each lamina is donated by the Eq. (8):
kinematics:1z, z  2z, z  0, zz  0 which leads to ⎪
⎩σk ⎪ ⎭
12
the well-known representation form for the deformation
area:
s(x, y, z)  u(x, y)+zϕ(x, y),sz (x, y, z)  w(x, y, z). σ k  C k ·   C k · (e + zk) (7)
Where:
where C k is the in-plane constitutive elastic matrix associ-
      ated to the kth lamina. However,
 theout-of-plane shear stress
s1 u1 ϕ1 k1z
s ,u ,ϕ (1) vector is defined as k 
s2 u2 ϕ2 k2z
which can be assessed

through constitutive equation as depicted the Eq. (9):

With u and ϕ the vectors of the midplane lamina displace-
ments and rotations, respectively. θ k  Qk γ (8)

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Fig. 1 Composite laminate plate
with artificial delamination
Fig. 2 Mesh quality assessment
where Q is the shear matrix. In other hand, the Hamilton’s
principle has been used to perform the motion equations of
displacements, strains and stresses.
2.1 FEM
In this paper, the nonlinear finite element analysis has been
employed to approach the mode shape of composite plate
based on the FSDT. The simple geometric model is created
in CATIA V5 and it imported to ANSYS Mechanical for
consecutive modal analyses to determine the resonant fre-
quencies for a several analysis of the sub-model [21].
The plate is meshed with Shell181 element type as lam-
inated shell quadratic element with 6 degrees of freedom
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International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
(DOF) at all nodes. The mesh dependence study is assessed
in the following paragraph, which is a four-node element
with 6 DOF at each node: translations and rotations in the
three directions and it is further well appropriate for lin-
ear, large rotation, and/or large strain nonlinear applications.
Change in shell thickness is accounted for nonlinear analy-
ses [32]. In fact, the accuracy in modelling composite shells
is governed by the FSDT where a directed discretization is
conducted by the software to approach the problem. The
element can reproduce the behavior of laminate composite
structures by defining the sequence of plies, thickness and
fiber orientation. The material is assigned by using the ACP.
Orthotropic material model is defined and listed in T. 1. The
relative fiber orientation is necessary to take into account
the orthotropic behavior of laminates. In fact, the density of
composite materials used in investigations has been further
taking into account.
2.2 Mesh sensitivity
For the purpose of modal results credibility and precision
of the simple finite element model implemented in ACP and
Mechanical [34, 35]. A mesh quality evaluation has been con-
ducted. The refined mesh body are employed to calculate the
resonant frequencies (Fig. 1). In fact, in continuum mechan-
ics, the constitutive model is expressed regarding the Hooke’s
law. When the material exhibits strain-softening behavior,
leading to strain localization, these results in an accurate
mesh dependency of the finite element results in that nat-
ural frequencies and damage are calculated in dependence of
element quality (see Fig. 2) [8, 24, 36]. Additional attention
International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
Fig. 3 Geometrical nonlinearities could be simulated by composite laminates
has been given to the mesh employed involving quadrilateral
shell elements with four integration points.
2.3 Vibration assessment
In this study, some geometrical nonlinearity aspects have
been taken in account for natural frequencies computing (see
the Fig. 3). A nonlinear vibration analysis for a stratified plate
is performed in order to investigate about mechanical behav-
ior of a composite plate arbitrary rectangular [32, 37]. In fact,
various parametric studies have been conducted considering
the boundary condition, material properties such as fiber ori-
entation and fiber nature for different stage of delamination’s
progression. Hence, the failure mechanisms of the plate is
modeled in the software by a surface of additional material
layers through the plate structure using Teflon Tape which is
characterized by their low mechanical properties and small
density as the Fig. 1 depicts. Indeed, the results will discuss
the free vibrational behavior of the composite plate and the
main conclusions will be assessed for the purpose of blade
skin stiffness characterization.
3 Results and discussions
Numerical results for the specimen are presented in this
section for the purpose of mechanical performances improve-
ment of the composite plate through four parametric studies
and globally for the performance of the blade composite
structure in the case of delamination progression. The first
parametric study aims to assess the effect of delamination
progression through a stratified plate on the modal behavior
(See Fig. 4). Besides, the second parametric study concerns
the effect on BC on the natural frequencies of the structure.
The third one discusses the repercussion of fiber orientation
on the free specimen vibration specimen. In fact, configura-
tions series have been proposed in this paper and investigate
about stiffness performance, which are the main configu-
rations that could be used in the construction of the blade
structure.
Fig. 4 Damage progressive of the specimen
Actually, the blade structure are composed with different
components as top and bottom skin, shear-web, thickened
root as the Fig. 5 depicts. The top and bottom skin are con-
nected in trailing and leading edges with adhesive layers,
instead of that, the shear-web is also connected to the inter-
nal surface of top and bottom skin using adhesive layers.
In fact, the vibrational modeling of each blade components
are the main of interest in this paper using simple results of
vibration analysis of a composite plate arbitrary rectangu-
lar to take decision in dynamic analysis based on resonant
frequencies.
Reasonably, the modeling aspect is very limited to take
decision on mechanical aspects for wind turbine blade but it
can donate an idea to reinforcement methodology of dynamic
response of the structure. Indeed, it can be considered that the
connected zones in blade structure are approached by simply
supported configurations. The thickened root are connected
to the turbine rotor body, which can be modeled by the can-
tilever plate configuration.
3.1 Effect of delamination propagation
In this section, the effect of delamination has been assessed
based on FSDT theory and discussed regarding the composite
blade structure. The delamination is propagated through lam-
inates of the stratified plate due to external loads. In fact, the
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Fig. 5 a Representation of the
adhesive layers of the blade (red
color). B Different components
connections of the multilayered
composite horizontal axis wind
turbine blade
Fig. 6 Effect of delamination rate on the stiffness degradation of a composite plate
delamination are the main failure of composite materials in
such applications especially wind turbine blade (WTB), thus,
the delamination effects need to be strongly investigated. To
study the effect of delamination on the stiffness of a pre-
failed plate, the rectangular size mid-plane delamination are
introduced at different rate of the composite specimen.
The configuration’s frequency of resonance of (0°/90°)3
plate is illustrated in the Fig. 6 as a function of delamination
area for a specimen arbitrary cantilever. The fundamental
frequencies for the 5.25% and 65% delaminated plates are
found to decrease by 8.2% and 24%, respectively, as com-
pared to an healthy plate for low modes and by 16% and
37%, respectively, for high modes level. It can be remarked
that decreasing rate of natural frequencies are important for
high modes level compared to low modes level, and, it can be
explained that by the fact that shaped geometry at high mode
level behave with important deformations, consequently, the
damage by delamination progresses strongly at high fre-
quency level. The delamination modeling of the plate can
be approach for the blade structure by considering the struc-
tural part of the blade, which is localized near the root, and
it can be recognized as a cantilever structure. In fact, after
the first delamination the stiffness is decreasing which could
contribute to local buckling of the blade laminates illustrated
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International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
as dimples on the top of the skin [38, 39]. The location and
size of delamination are two important factor to be assessed
in order to evaluate the high compressed regions within the
blade structure as presented in the literature [24]. To conclude
that the blade structure needs to be powerfully evaluated in
terms of damage progressive of materials using modal analy-
sis to have a way to tolerate damage and take decisions about
performance [31, 40].
3.2 Effect of BC
In the matter of BC of a composite plate, the Fig. 7 illustrates
the effect of BC’s configurations for a couple of consid-
ered damaged areas. The free boundary of plate presents low
resonant frequencies, which is normal, because any connec-
tions are not applied, thus, the applied boundary conditions
has an effect on vibration level, which could be explained
with the present results shown in the Fig. 8. Hence, the
four edge clamped composite plate presents high frequency
vibration level because all six conditions are applied for
every plate edge. However, the cantilever plate presents three-
fixed rotation and three-fixed displacement at one plate edge.
Besides, the simply supported configuration presents four
fixed transversational displacements.
International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
Fig. 7 BC effect on fundamental
frequencies for delaminated
composite plate
Fig. 8 WTB sub-model
evaluation of detached nodes at
one edge
By comparing the two configurations, it is clear that
natural frequencies of clamped and FFFF are extremely dis-
similar. In fact, the FFFF configuration can be used to model
the local composite area at the fixed root because the attach-
ment of root is surface. Hence, the CFFF configuration can
also employed to represent the behavior of the top and bot-
tom skin or shear web composite structures at the structural
part of the blade because these structures are fixed at one
edge. Besides, the SSSS configuration is used in these inves-
tigations to compare the behavior of the plate with other
configurations.
From above, the criticality of composite structure near
the root are major for with an important stiffness reduction
of 1000 Hz for the total damaged areas of 10% and 40%
at the 6th mode. Consequently, using this specimen is to
take decision about stiffness state or to improving the rigid-
ity of the root composite structure, which is a simple way.
For this reason, parametric studies could be conducted by
characterizing the overall architecture of composite blade as
fiber material and orientation or the woven structure and the
thickness of lamina and the section of the fiber to found the
optimal configuration for the considered composite structure.
These parametric studies results could be affected to the other
BC configurations, which means that the stiffness of the blade
composite structure is based on the FFFF configuration.
In the Fig. 5 describes the blade components of the multi-
layered composite horizontal axis wind turbine blade shown
in Fig. 5b and different connection between them as shown
with red color in Fig. 5a. Actually, the other main failure
that mostly occurred in composite blade structure is adhe-
sive layers or the connection between blade components. In
this case, we consider the adhesion of top or bottom skin near
the root where local deformations develop.
In fact, the Fig. 8 depicts the composite structures detached
modeling from adhesive layers due to internal loading in
wind turbine blade. Generally, buckling phenomena is the
main and critical solicitations in composite blade due to flap
and edge wise loading, which generate high local deforma-
tion at compressive zones of the blade structure. In fact, the
modeling analysis of detached laminates from adhesive is
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 International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)

described in Fig. 8a. The detached nodes are applied in the

laminates plate fixed in one edge. The modal analysis using
FEA is performed to evaluate the eigenvalue for the detached
and non-detached nodes configurations in order to quantify
the stiffness state of the structure in bending and torsional
mode shapes. As shown in Fig. 8b presents the variation of
normalized frequency in respect to the all fixed in different
modes as illustrated in the case of detached areas variation.
The bending and torsional mode shapes are depicted for the
first six modes. It is clear that normalized frequency decrease
with distinction among the detached nodes rate in bending
modes compared to torsional modes, which are close.
The main conclusion of this previous investigation is
firstly to assess the overall behavior of a composite plate
under different BC’s configurations, which could be crucial
to find solutions of reinforcement. Secondly, to understand
the effect failure adhesive of composite structure on stiff- Fig. 9 Fiber orientation effect of cantilever plate with 20%
ness for every mode shape. In fact, the bending mode is the
main critical shape that affect the whole stiffness of the can-
tilever plate with detached nodes at the fixed edges; it can be Table 1 Carbon fiber composite materials properties used in these
explained by the fact that the flexural shapes of the plate affect investigations [33]
strongly the stiffness compared to torsional shapes with a lit- Properties CFRP Value
tle bit difference of stiffness reduction. The local buckling in
 
these regions especially in trailing edge of the blade induces ρ kg/cm3 1600
local deformations in torsion and bending of the material, E 1 (GPa) 227
which can explain the local stiffness reduction at the level of E 2 (GPa) 15.5
adhesive layers.
E 3 (GPa) 3.46
N u 12 0.27
3.3 Effect of fiber orientation
N u 13  N u 23 0.09
G 12  G 13 (GPa) 4.42
In order to assess the effect of fiber orientation on natural fre-
quencies of the 20% delaminated plate (6-layers), three types G 23 (GPa) 9
of fiber orientations, (0°/90°/(0/90/ + 45°/0°/ − 45°/90°), the
cross-ply fibers (0°/90°)3 , (+ 45°/ − 45°)3 and (+ 45°/ +
45°/90°/90°/− 45°/− 45°) are considered. The changes in the The results obtained from this assessment could be used
natural frequently as a behavior of fiber orientation are pre- to predict the evolution of stiffness regarding blade struc-
sented in Fig. 9 for the cantilever boundary condition plate. ture optimization. In fact, the fiber orientation is a crucial
It is observed that the significant natural frequency of the and very specific parameter for improving the composite
20% delaminated plate with (0°/90°)3 and (0°/90°/45°/0°/− blade robustness especially near the connection zones of the
45°/90°) fiber orientation increases by 5.32% and 2.30%, blade laminates because of the materials here are extremely
accordingly, with respect to the (+ 45°/ − 45°)3 fiber orien- solicited and its generate local buckling and shear deforma-
tation. The results reveal that the essential natural frequency tions that could be more critical in severe conditions [24,
of a delaminated plate increases with the increase in fiber ori- 25].
entation angle with respect to the orientation. However, the
increase in the resonant natural frequency is not too notice- 3.4 Effect of density degree
able due to the low size of the proposed model.
For wind turbine blade composite skin laminates, the fiber To test the effects of density on natural frequencies of the
orientation parameter of composite structure has effectively 20% delaminated [(0°/90°)3 ] plate, three different types of
effect on rigidity due her important strength in fiber direc- stratifies are fabricated with 6 layers, accordingly. The entire
tion; it can be characterized by also his section factor or geometrical and material properties of the laminates are pre-
volume fraction, which are an important parameter to take viously given in the Table 1 except the density. In fact, the
in account. The cantilever composite plate is used here to density is investigated to determine the optimal configura-
show the effect of fiber orientation his natural frequencies. tions. In fact, the composite material density can be specified

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International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
Fig. 10 Density degree effect on natural frequencies of composite plate
into three categories: high, medium, and low. The densities
of considered laminates for the used material are 1700, 1600
and 1500 kg/m3 for six layers, respectively. The resonant
frequencies for free vibration of the three configurations as
obtained from numerical analysis for a composite arbitrary
cantilever.
In the context of the composite blade structure dynami-
cal assessment. The Fig. 10 depicts the effect of density on
shafting in natural frequencies of the present model. In fact,
shear-web sandwich structure is changed their resonant fre-
quencies by adding or changing the original material density
into a highly or lowly density levels which is very crucial
in stiffness of the blade [41, 42]. The blade skin is a com-
plex geometry, which could modeled by cantilever shaped
laminates plate. Therefore, for different natural frequency
domain, changing density degree is a factor to improve stiff-
ness of the overall blade structure. It can further be noticeable
that blade structure a highly complex shaped structure due to
his aerodynamic performance needs to be rigid as possible to
convert the wind energy [43]. The junction area of the shaped
blade are the main purpose of these vibration investigations
because these areas are the main localization of stress. In fact,
stiffening stress [30] is a geometrical nonlinearity, which is
localized in these areas that change the linear behavior of
material to nonlinear behavior [32].
To conclude that the density degree is an important factor
to improve the dynamic response of composite structure in
these junction areas of the blade and the high stressed parts
as rib and skin laminates in order to increase their natural
frequencies as a consequent the improvement of blade. Using
the Taguchi method [44] instead of the other parameters as
fiber orientation, fiber section and fiber materials is a crucial
way to find the optimal configuration of the blade composite
materials during cyclic loading [45, 37].
4 Conclusion
Good attentions have been paid to the procedure adopted to
model, understand and boost the dynamic response of the
wind turbine blade structure using elemental results based
on composite laminates plate involving several paramet-
ric studies considering fiber orientation, thickness lamina
and fiber materials in the case of delamination application.
The progressive damage of the cantilever composite plate
by delamination are presented with a high gradient of fre-
quency/delamination rate at high modes level with a gradient
of 76 compared to the two first modes with 15 of the gradi-
ent. In addition, the progression of delamination is important
parameter to take into account in services of blade. Besides,
the main conclusion of this previous investigation is that
the bending mode is the main critical shape that affects
the whole stiffness of the cantilever plate with detached
nodes at the fixed edge. It can be explained by the fact that
the flexural shapes of the plate affect strongly the stiffness
compared to torsional shapes. Hence, the resonant natural fre-
quency of the 20% failed plate with delamination (0°/90°)3
and (0°/90°/45°/0°/− 45°/90°) fiber orientation increase by
5.32% and 2.30%, respectively, with respect to the (+ 45°/ −
45°)3 fiber orientation. In addition, the density degree is a
main factor to improve the dynamic response of composite
structure in these high-stressed zones in order to increase
their natural frequencies. The technical contributions of the
present work are focalized on the vibrational assessment of
the blade composite structure through the evaluation of a sub-
model of composite laminates arbitrary rectangular. In fact,
the delamination effect on stiffness has been discussed based
on the simple model of composite plate to generalize the
obtained results on the stiffness evaluation of the blade struc-
ture in the case of an artificial delamination using the FSDT
approach. Elseways, damage progressive by delamination are
the main of interest of the blade structure rigidity-strength
and damage tolerance. Other parameters have been further
discussed for the same purpose using the same model, which
reduce computational structure dynamic timing. Otherwise,
the results certainty of the approach is discussed based on
recent results. Despite the simplicity of the used sub-model,
the decreasing of model uncertainty is furtherly valorized and
improved.
Acknowledgements This research was not supported by any public,
commercial, or non-profit company.
Author contributions OR: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Validation, Investigation, Visualization, Writing—original draft. HM:
Reviewing, Supervision.
Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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Data availability Authors confirm that all relevant data and material are
included in the article.
Code availability Authors ensure that all relevant data are included in
the article.
Declarations
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.
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