Finite Element Analysis of Composite Wind Turbine Blades
M. Appadurai, E. Fantin Irudaya Raj
Abstract
A wind turbine is a structure that utilizes vanes called wind blades to transform wind power into electrical energy. Thus, Wind Blades play an essential role in a wind turbine. Wind blades strength may get vary depends upon the material chosen, this will improve the performance of Wind turbine. Composites are often the preferred material compare with other materials for blade production because they have different properties that support higher performance. The performance of wind blades made of composite materials such as carbon epoxy, graphite epoxy and steel are analyzed in this paper. Also, Computational modelling and analysis were carried out with the ANSYS finite element software package to gain insight into the appropriateness of these composites compared with steel for wind turbine blade applications under different loading conditions.