Abstract
Within renewable energy, challenging climates can impose great limitations on power generation. In wind energy, rain erosion on turbine blades can create major disruptions to air flow over the aerofoil, reducing the efficiency of the blade and immediately affecting the power output of the turbine. The defects in the materials that cause these inefficiencies are known and can be observed on turbines that have been in operation for extended periods. This work explores the transitions between different wear states for G10 Epoxy Glass under laboratory simulated wind turbine conditions in operation and measures the wear periodically to identify a progression of erosion. Mass loss data and micrographic analysis revealed samples at 45° and 60° displayed increasing erosion when examining erosion performance for angles between 15° and 90° over various exposure and velocities. Erosion maps were constructed, showing the variation of wastage and identifying the performance window of conditions where degradation is minimised.
Highlights
Renewable energy is at the forefront of energy production with wind increasingly becoming the most popular generation mode
In order to generate significant magnitudes of energy, the turbine must have a large swept area which results in the glass fibre reinforced polymer blades being up to 100 m long each
Wind energy saw a near USD 29.4 billion investment from the European Union, translating to USD 1.54 million and USD 9.57 million per onshore and offshore MW installations, respectively [3]. This accelerated sector growth is due to increased turbine size [4], allowing for greater energy generation and efficiency, reducing the ratio of installation to production cost for wind farms
Summary
Renewable energy is at the forefront of energy production with wind increasingly becoming the most popular generation mode. Wind energy saw a near USD 29.4 billion investment from the European Union, translating to USD 1.54 million and USD 9.57 million per onshore and offshore MW installations, respectively [3] This accelerated sector growth is due to increased turbine size [4], allowing for greater energy generation and efficiency, reducing the ratio of installation to production cost for wind farms. This change increases the potential capacities for new turbines and creates new areas of low wind which were previously inaccessible with smaller turbines [3]. This will demonstrate the different erosion mechanisms that occur at different impact angles and how the erosion patterns on the sample will evolve over time
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
