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Carbon
Fiber Composite Aeroelastically Tailored Rotor Blades for Utility-Scale Wind
Turbines--K.
Wetzel & Company, Inc., P.O. BOX 4153, 4108 Spring Hill Drive, Lawrence, KS
66046-1153; 785-766-2450
Dr.
Kyle K. Wetzel, Principal
Investigator, kwetzel@kwetzel.com
Dr.
Kyle K. Wetzel, Business Official, kwetzel@kwetzel.com
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG03-02ER86151
Amount:
$100,000
Research
Institution
The Wichita
State
University
Wichita, KS
The
wind turbine industry will need advanced materials and designs to achieve the
DOE goal of 3.0¢/kWh cost of energy at Class 4 sites. Aeroelastically
tailored blades constructed of braided carbon and hybrid carbon/glass composite
materials offer the potential for significant savings in blade weight and
possibly cost while using passive twist-bend coupling to ameliorate peak extreme
loads and fatigue. This project will
develop and demonstrate the production of a utility-scale twist-bend coupled
blade (with the desired fatigue characteristics) that can be cost-effectively
manufactured using recently developed manufacturing methods (e.g., resin
infusion molding) with braided carbon materials.
Phase I will include (1) material design and fatigue testing to identify
structurally sound laminate constructions for effecting aeroelastic coupling
using carbon and hybrid fiber reinforcements; (2) the identification of
technologies for fabricating carbon and hybrid carbon/glass composite structures
to effect aeroelastic coupling; and (3) the optimization of the carbon composite
rotor blade design to 37-m wind turbine rotor blade (optimizing among the
variables aeroelastic tailoring, stiffness, weight and cost reduction, load
reduction, and aerodynamic performance) that provides the greatest reduction in
cost of energy from wind power.
Commercial
Applications and Other Benefits
as described by the awardee: A
family of designs for carbon composite aeroelastically tailored wind turbine
blades, with lengths from 37 m to 60 m, should allow turbines to continue
expanding in size while reducing the cost of energy by 8-10%. This
should enable a substantial expansion of wind energy markets in both the