New Design Tool Improves Manufacture of Composite Wind Turbine Blades

摘要

Composite materials are ideal for producing wind turbine blades because of their strength, lightweight, and ability to be tailored to provide the precise mechanical properties needed for any blade design. Now, best practices originally developed for rotorcraft blade manufacturing can be applied to designing and manufacturing wind turbine blades that are constructed from composites. Composite materials are well suited for use in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, yet the structural complexity of these materials also presents difficult challenges in optimizing design and manufacturing methods. From a design and manufacturing standpoint, wind turbine blades have many similarities to helicopter rotor-craft blades and other aerospace structures. Wind turbine manufacturers, therefore, have the unique opportunity to adapt and apply the best practices developed and refined over several decades in the aerospace industry and help their businesses succeed in a tough competitive environment by reducing design lead time, improving blade durability, and optimizing design and manufacturing processes.