Thesis
Design and manufacturing of a segmented thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
12/2015
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004302
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124720
Abstract
Today a large-scale wind turbine blade can be 70 m long and 5 m in root chord length, and it is fabricated in a single piece. This feature leads to high initial costs, as transportation of a large blade requires special trucks and road adaptations. These constraints can account for approximately 6-7% of the total investment for the blade. In addition, the manufacturing process commonly used is a hand lay-up configuration of thermoset composite sheets, which is a time-consuming process for large-scale parts. The project consists of designing, manufacturing and testing a small thermoplastic composite blade in segments. The object of segmented fabrication is to simplify manufacturing and transportation. A total of six 60cm long, horizontal-axis wind turbine blades were fabricated and tested in real terrain. The blade size and profile are determined based on the idealized Betz limit condition. The design consists of a blade partitioned into four shell segments. These segments were fabricated by means of Vacuum Assisted Thermoforming, and then they were assembled by a combination of two joining techniques: fusion and adhesion. Once created, the three most suitable blades were selected for a rotor blade set. This set was attached to an existing turbine and tested at the wind farm of Washington State University Vancouver.
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Details
- Title
- Design and manufacturing of a segmented thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade
- Creators
- Juan Bautista Garate
- Contributors
- Stephen Solovitz (Chair) - Washington State University, Engineering and Computer Science (VANC), School ofDae-Wook Kim (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Engineering and Computer Science (VANC), School ofYoon Jo Kim (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Engineering and Computer Science (VANC), School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 102
- Identifiers
- 99900896400001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis