Abstract
Wind turbines can be subject to a wide range of environmental conditions during a life span that could conceivably extend beyond 20 years. Hailstone impact is thought to be a key factor in the leading edge erosion and damage of the composite materials of wind turbine blades. Using UK meteorological data, this paper demonstrates that the rotational speed is a crucial factor in determining the magnitude of the kinetic energy associated with singular impact and is likely to be significant for incidents of hail. An improved representation of hail characteristics, occurrence probabilities and realistic impact component velocities is also proposed, from which the prospect of individual impact by large hailstones is found to be very scarce. Instead, the damage posed by multiple impacts throughout wind turbine operation is assessed. The annual average cumulative impact energy for a high frequency of hail case study is determined and evaluated against example composite failure threshold energies in the literature. © 2015 The Authors. Wind Energy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
In order to harness energy from the wind, wind turbines are installed at a diverse range of geographical regions across the world
Hail is considered by various providers of protection measures as one of the key particles associated with the erosion of wind turbine blade composite materials
Meteorological data were provided by the British Atmospheric Data Centre, consisting of three separate datasets: Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) land and marine surface stations,[9] the Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric and Radio Research (CFARR)[10] and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere–Stratosphere–Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility at Aberystwyth.[11]
Summary
In order to harness energy from the wind, wind turbines are installed at a diverse range of geographical regions across the world. The erosion process typically starts at the leading edge of the blade, where the first visual signs of damages are pits in the paints/coatings that gradually increase in density to form gouges. This continues towards the blade root and on the upper and lower surfaces of the aerofoil. In order to relate potential hail risks to practical cases and inform future erosion model development, the location of UK wind farms relative to prevalent hail stations will be considered and a range of plausible incidents developed for specific turbine cases
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