Design and Structural Performance of Composite Wind Turbine Blade using Finite Element Method: Composite Wind Turbine Blade

In this paper, a 9-meter-long composite wind turbine blade is designed on the basis of blade element theory (BET), and finite element analysis (FEA) is performed using commercial ANSYS software. Various design parameters for a blade such as material properties, laminate lay-up, skin thickness, ply orientation, internal spar etc., are determined iteratively to get optimal blade structural design. NREL S-series airfoils with different chord thickness are used along current blade cross-sections. Glass fibers are traditionally being used as a basis material for wind turbine blade manufacturing. This work also addresses the advanced use of carbon fiber in the spar cap region of the blade as an alternative material. Numerical calculations are run to simulate the static and dynamic characteristics, as well as an Eigen value buckling characteristics in order to confirm the blade to be sound and stable under various load conditions. It is observed that there is a substantial weight reduction and structural strength with the use of cost-effective carbon/glass hybrid material.