Raman spectroscopic study and statistical modeling of composition-structure-property of MgO-CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 based glasses

Abstract

Lightweight, glass fiber reinforced plastic composites (GFRP) have gained a broad, global acceptance in commercial markets, among which wind turbine blade for the renewable energy sector is one of the fastest growing areas. The usfsupplee of longer wind turbine blades can effectively reduce the cost of energy generation. However, it requires a fiberglass product with a higher tensile modulus to make the blades stiffer to meet the blade deflection requirement under severe weather conditions. Traditional wind turbine blades are made from conventional E-Glass fibers with and without boron. E-Glass is primarily composed of CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 (CAS) with and without minor components of MgO (less than 4 %) and/or B2O3 (less than 1 %). Glass with higher modulus belongs to MgO (>7 %) -CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 (MCAS) system or R-Glass. Our study focuses on the effects of selective key oxides on the glass network structure by using Raman spectroscopic technique. The Raman derived plausible structure groups are then used to build statistical structure (S) – property (P) models. The S-P models are then compared with the conventional statistical C-P models. A good agreement between S-P and C-P models led to the final construction of C-S-P model platform for future glass design.