ReliaBlade2 research project

Project title: ReliaBlade2 – Development of new design methods for rotor blades

Summary:

The reliability of rotor blades is particularly important for the safe and economical operation of wind turbines. However, despite the wind energy industry’s many years of experience in the design and operation of rotor blades, cracks still occur in the rotor blade structure, which are the cause of costly repairs and operational failures. This indicates a lack of knowledge in the development of damage due to fatigue. Important physical relationships have not yet been fully understood, which includes in particular material modeling and comprehensive validation of extended models. Digital twins can also help to operate rotor blades even more safely and cost-effectively in the future. However, not all methods are yet available to map probabilistic uncertainties in a digital twin. A consortium of research institutions and industrial partners has come together to close the aforementioned knowledge gaps.

The sub-project of ForWind Hannover pursues the all-encompassing goal of increasing the structural reliability and economic efficiency of rotor blades. To this end, a new design philosophy for the fatigue of rotor blades is to be established in the industry, which includes progressive matrix damage. This will be based on fatigue damage models developed in-house and partly used in the industry. Characterization and validation tests at coupon level are an integral part of the sub-project. In addition, methods for the creation of probabilistic digital twins are to be developed that incorporate spatially and statistically distributed manufacturing imperfections with the help of AI-based model updating. The models and methods developed are to be applied for the first time to an industrially manufactured rotor blade and validated by whole-blade tests.