Fatigue analysis of wind turbine composite blade using finite element method

Abstract

In the past 30 years, wind turbine blades (WTB) have undergone significant development, increasing their size and introducing composites into manufacturing processes and using numerical simulation to assess their strength and structural integrity, helped increasing the number of installed wind turbine units as well as reducing the cost of wind generated energy. In this paper a DLoad subroutine was developed to assess monitor and evaluate the structural integrity of a large wind turbine blade under numerous static load scenarios. The fatigue study was carried using the finite element method, and the DLoad subroutine developed was used with ABAQUS finite Element analysis Software, and performed perfectly. The results show that the proposed layup parameters and the chosen composite materials gives to the wind turbine the desired structural strength. Furthermore, the DLoad subroutine for the fatigue study shows that the higher is the applied force the faster the blade fail. While, Hashin Criterion shows that the distribution of damage for the matrix and the fiber is all over the blade, but the failure only occurs after reaching an energy threshold which depends on the composite materials and the layup parameters used. Therefore, the chosen layup model will allow the wind turbine blade to withstand the extreme climatic conditions in the sea.