Process Development Issues of Glass-CarbonHybrid Reinforced Polymer Composite WindTurbine Blades

摘要

Large structures made with composites like wind turbine rotor blades,yachts and airplane fuselages employ different manufacturing processes to attain therequired design criteria. Almost always simulation tools are used to aid themanufacturing process development for large scale structures. This paper details thedevelopment of a Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) basedmanufacturing process for a 3.2m long aeroelastically designed rotor blade withoutan infusion modeling tool. Changes in the manufacturing process are made based ona parametric matrix until the desired part quality is achieved. The final processresults in the fabrication of six rotor blades each with different lay up and fiberconstituents. Problems and solutions related to migrating from small scale VARTMprocess to larger structures are detailed.