Preface

Abstract

Proceeding of the 43rd Risø International Symposium on Materials Science: Composites for wind energy: Manufacturing, Operation and End-of-life L.P. Mikkelsen, J. BeausonThe focus of the 43rd Risø Symposium is on composites for wind energy. This symposium takes a life cycle perspective and addresses manufacturing, performance during operation, and end-of-life of composites for wind energy. Over the last 40 years, wind turbine blades have grown an order of magnitude. Today, the longest blades exceed 100 meters and weigh 50 tons. Because of this growth in blade size, the cost of wind energy can now compete with fossil-based energy sources in market terms.As society is thriving towards a zero-emission future, the wind energy sector is foreseen to expand further. Longer wind turbine blades with improved overall lifetime, reliability, recyclability, sustainability, operability, and maintainability are some of the objectives set for this component. To address these upcoming and ambitious requirements, the contributions are dedicated to the manufacturing, operation, and performance, as well as end-of-life strategies for wind turbine blades.The Proceedings contain 6 invited papers and 36 contributed papers.The 43rd International Risø Symposium on Materials Science is organized by the Division of Wind Energy Materials and Components at the Department of Wind and Energy Systems, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). We want to thank all those at DTU who have assisted in the preparations for the symposium. We appreciate additionally the support from the international advisory committee consisting of Douglas Cairns, US; Kristofer Gamstedt, SE; John W. Hutchinson, US; Yasuo Kitane, JP; Kristiina Oksman, SE; Kim Pickering, NZ; Marino Quaresimin, IT; Jon Spangenberg, DK; Michael Sutcliffe, UK; Yentl Swolfs, BE; Ramesh Talreja, US; Michael Wisnom, UK; Philip Withers, UK.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the following sources: Danish Center for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Otto Mønsteds Fond and Knud Højgaards Fond.