Literature Survey on Wind Turbine Blades Construction

The construction of the wind turbine blade is mainly constrained by two parameters; the
first one is the external surface that must adhere to the used airfoil design in order to gain
the required wind energy from the aerodynamic environment. The other parameter involves
the internal structure which must support the acting loads on the blade.
These two paths of research and technology were developing independently, aerodynamic
research centers developed a lot of airfoil "families" and were presented in special
catalogues [1], while the structure of the blade depends on the structure loading conditions
and ,of course, the used materials.
Actually the structure different designs were much affected by the used materials,the used
materials in manufacturing the blade were wood, aluminum, titanium, steels, glass and
carbon fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP& CFRP) [2]. For the sake of loading these materials,
in a suitable way that considers their mechanical properties especially for their directionality
(in case of composites), a lot of structures where developed to sustain the acted loads while
preserving the external airfoil shape.
Figure 2 shows the historical development of the blade structure, beginning from the early
1900's with non hollow wood blades, then having hollow cross section with a supporting
spar. The spar shape changed also while changing the used materials, it begins with wood
spar then riveted aluminum sections, then the D-spar used in aluminum and steel structures
and finally the GFRP spar that is composed of two caps(see Figure 1) that are joined to the
upwind and downwind airfoil skin with a shear web in between for the sake to support out
of plane shear stresses [3].

Figure 1 GFRP Blade Construction
In some cases as Swedish WTS-75 wind turbine the structure was mixed between steel spar
and GFRP outer shell [2], also for the metal structures the blade could be segmented into
several parts then assembled on site, which gives high advantage for metal structures with
respect to transportation costs between factory and site [4].
Considering the objectives upon which the blade construction is base; it mainly targets the
following objectives: (1) maximize annual energy yield for the specified wind speed
distribution; (2) limit maximum power output (in the case of stall regulated machines); (3)
resist extreme and fatigue loads; (4) restrict tip deflections to avoid blade/tower collisions
(in the case of upwind machines); (5) avoid resonances; (6) minimize weight and cost. [3]
The first two objectives are being concerned by the research in the aerodynamic
performance track as explained before, while the other four objectives are mainly the
research teams concerned with structural design and analysis.
Some aspects mush be taken into consideration while building the blade construction; the
blade cross section may differ along its length; an example is the tapered thickness of the
blade with maximum thickness near the root in order to enhance the structural properties.
Another aspect is also changing the number and the material of the plies of the composite
material used near the root or near the tip in case of using composite blades.
The most important parameter that affects all the blade construction objectives is the blade
stiffness, there are typically three members contributing to the stiffness of the blade so that
it is able to resist the various loads. In addition to capturing the wind and converting it into
torque, the airfoil shell provides the blade with stiffness to resist torsional and edgewise
bending loads. Flapwise bending is the most significant load subjected to the blade and is
resisted by utilizing a thick section of stiff composite material on the upwind and downwind
sides of the airfoil. These stiffened sections are termed spar flanges and are connected by
shear webs. The shear webs provide some torsional and edgewise bending stiffness but
mainly contribute to shear stiffness. [5]

For summarizing the research efforts in constructing a wind turbine blade, most of the
current manufactured blades are GFRP totally, so the most suitable structure is the last cross
section(on the right) presented in Figure 2, that includes airfoil skin that participates also in
resisting loads and sometimes another two flanges(caps) joined internally with the vertical
shear web(or two shear webs in some cases), all are GFRP but with different fiber directions.

Also some other designs required for huge wind turbines may need metal structure to resist
loads or to allow segmenting the blades for lower cost transportation and for erecting the
turbine while its setup, these are stated as the current challenges for the technology [6].



Figure 2 Wind Turbine Blades construction Historical Development (extracted from ref [2])

Works Cited

[1] e. Franck Bertagnolio, Wind Turbine Airfoil Catalogue, Roskilde, 2001.
[2] E. Hau, Wind Turbines:Fundamentals,Technologies, Application, Economics, Germany:
Springer-Verlag, 2006.
[3] e. Tony Burton, Wind Energy Handbook, England: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2001.
[4] W. S.Egert, "Design and Evaluation of Low-Cost Stainless Steel-Fiberglass foam blades for
large Wind driven generating systems," Lewis Research Center, Washington, 1982.
[5] A. E. Kevin Cox, "Structural design and analysis of a 10MW wind turbine blade," Energy
Procedia, vol. 24, pp. 194-201, 2012.
[6] A. R. Thresher, "Advanced Wind Technology: New Challenges for a New Century," in
European Wind Energy Conference, Athens, 2006.