A Staged Approach to Erosion Analysis of Wind Turbine Blade Coatings

David Nash,Kirsten Dyer,Grant Leishman,Liu Yang,Cameron Mackie

doi:10.3390/coatings11060681

David Nash, Kirsten Dyer + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings11060681

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Abstract

The current wind turbine leading-edge erosion research focuses on the end of the incubation period and breakthrough when analysing the erosion mechanism. This work presented here shows the benefits of splitting and describing leading-edge erosion progression into discrete stages. The five identified stages are: (1) an undamaged, as-new, sample; (2) between the undamaged sample and end of incubation; (3) the end of incubation period; (4) between the end of incubation and breakthrough, and (5) breakthrough. Mass loss, microscopy and X-ray computed tomography were investigated at each of the five stages. From this analysis, it was observed that notable changes were detected at Stages 2 and 4, which are not usually considered separately. The staged approach to rain erosion testing offers a more thorough understanding of how the coating system changes and ultimately fails due to rain droplet impacts. It is observed that during microscopy and X-ray computed tomography, changes unobservable to the naked eye can be tracked using the staged approach.

Highlights

Wind turbine blade leading-edge erosion is a major issue within the wind energy sector [1,2]
Stage 2, shown in Figure 3b, displays the sample after a period of rain erosion testing, where the sample has remained within the incubation period
This becomes evident when looking at Stage 2 erosion under the microscope, and the X-ray computed tomography (XCT) show that the assumption of no noticeable changes during the incubation period is surface has begun to change

Summary

Introduction

Wind turbine blade leading-edge erosion is a major issue within the wind energy sector [1,2]. Eroded blades perform at reduced aerodynamic efficiency, leading to a lower energy harvest and, in turn, less revenue for the wind farm owner [3,4,5]. A staged approach to erosion testing provides greater detail on how the coating system is changing with progressive rain impacts [9]. A staged approach allows for time parameters to be assigned to each erosion stage. These time parameters can be linked to real-world applications and give an estimate of time to the end of incubation/failure of an operational coating system. It is noted that this does not include other real-world influential factors such as environmental conditions

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Conclusion