Abstract
The paper presents the manufacturing process of advanced composite wind turbine blades designed for an experimental counter rotating vertical wind turbine (CR-VAWT). An iterative approach was used to present the manufacturing process of turbine blades starting from presentation of the turbine structure and material description as well as all manufacturing process stages. Two types of turbine blades were successfully manufactured using metallic molds and a cost-effective manufacturing technology. Based on the turbine blades obtained it can be said that the selected manufacturing process showed good results, very similar with results expected in case of using advanced technologies (i.e. autoclave technology.
Highlights
Nowadays, the reduction of fossil fuel dependency is an important aspect taken into account by most countries
A solution to improve the performances of wind turbines is to develop counter rotating wind turbines with the airfoils made of fiber reinforced composites
Two types of mechanical tests were performed in order to determine the tensile and flexural properties of the selected composite material used for counter rotating vertical wind turbine (CR-vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT)) blades
Summary
The reduction of fossil fuel dependency is an important aspect taken into account by most countries. A reduction of fossil fuel consumption can be made by increasing the renewable energy intake, thereby one of the solutions could be the installation and expansion of wind turbines in domestic areas and development of wind farms [1]. In European Commission’s Energy Roadmap 2050 is stated that investments in renewable technologies will be increased. Until 2050 is foreseen that wind power will provide more electricity than any other renewable technology [3]. Wind turbines can be classified in two main categories, horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). As the interest for wind energy is rising, VAWTs are being considered a potential alternative to HAWTs for floating offshore wind turbines concept [6] and for households. The interest in VAWTs increased due to the invention of two main turbine types, Darrieus and Savonius vertical turbines [4].
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