Study of the Performance of Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites for Wind Turbine Blade Applications

摘要

The availability of some form of energy is essential for the human survival and social development. However, theway energy has been generated within the last century has brought forward the quest for the generation of energywithout polluting the environment, which is nowadays considered to be the greatest global challenge. The materials used for wind turbine blades can be classifed under this challenge of polluting the environment. One of thematerials expected to reduce this problem is natural fber reinforced composite (FRC). Thus, the focus of this paperwas to evaluate the potential of di?erent natural FRC materials for small wind turbine blade application. Elevendi?erent natural fbers reinforced composite in epoxy resin were studied. A modifed Halphin-Tsai semi-empiricalmodel was used to compute the physical properties of the composites, since it has a good agreement with the experimental results. Stress, deformation, and weight of wind turbine blade under di?erent loadings were analyzedaimed to search for a fber type that may extend the life span of the blade. Finally, ?ap wise and edge wise, thelongitudinal and torsional natural frequencies were computed numerically by using the fnite element method inthe Qblade software (QFEM) under di?erent mode types and the e?ects were analysed. Upon comparing the results with a common composite material for wind turbine blade (E-glass/epoxy), it was observed that the selectednatural fber composites have equivalent and better mechanical performance. The environmental friendliness ofnatural fbers, i.e. biodegradability, constitutes their advantage as materials of wind turbine blades.