Construction of Low-Cost, Mod-0A Wood-Composite Wind-Turbine Blades

摘要

The construction of two sixty-foot, low-cost, wood composite blades for service on 200 kW Mod-0A wind turbines is described. The blades were constructed of epoxy resin-bonded Douglas fir veneers for the leading edge sections, and paper honeycomb-cored, birch plywood faced panels for the afterbody sections. The blades were joined to the wind turbine hub by epoxy resin-bonded steel load take-off studs embedded into the root end of the blades. The blades were installed on the 200 kW Mod-0A wind turbine facility at Kahuku, Hawaii. The blades have completed nearly 8000 hours of operation over an 18 month period at an average power of 150 kW prior to replacement with another set of wood composite blades. The blades were replaced because of a corrosion failure of the steel shank on one stud. Inspections at NASA-Lewis showed that the wood composite structure remains in excellent condition. (ERA citation 08:020212)