Abstract
Advanced nanoparticle-reinforced glass fibre composites represent a promising approach to improving the service life of fatigue-loaded structures such as wind turbine rotor blades. However, processing particle-reinforced resins using advanced infusion techniques is problematic due to, for example, higher viscosity as well as filtering effects. In this work, the effects of boehmite nanoparticles on viscosity, static properties and fatigue life are investigated experimentally. Whereas rheological analysis reveals a significant increase of viscosity in the case of pristine boehmite particles, an additional taurine surface modification of the particles can effectively reduce viscosity increase. As regards mechanical properties, significant improvements of both static as well as fatigue properties are found. The addition of 15 wt.% of boehmite particles increases fatigue life by a maximum of 270% compared to the unmodified fibre-reinforced epoxy. Transmitted light-based investigation of the damage mechanisms shows delayed initiation and smaller growth rates for laminates containing boehmite particles. At the same time, the observed mechanisms and their accumulation along the relative cycle number do not change significantly. In addition, by characterising autonomous heating, the so-called Risitano fatigue limit is determined. The results reveal that with increasing particle content there is an increase in the fatigue limit.
Highlights
For a successful energy transition, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of energy generation from renewable sources
The results reveal that with increasing particle content there is an increase in the fatigue limit
An improvement of the fatigue characteristics of the glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRP) increases the reliability of the rotor blades and enables their size to be enlarged through a mass-reduced design
Summary
For a successful energy transition, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of energy generation from renewable sources. With the rotor blades among the most fatigue-stressed technical components in terms of fatigue life time, load variability and ambient conditions [1,2], there is a need for stronger and more damage-resistant light-weight materials [3]. Excessive experimental characterisation of wind turbine composite materials [5,6] and rotor blade damage behaviour [5,7,8,9,10,11] has been conducted over the last decades in addition to improving design and fatigue life prediction methods [1,4,12]. An improvement of the fatigue characteristics of the glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRP) increases the reliability of the rotor blades and enables their size to be enlarged through a mass-reduced design
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