Fatigue damage evolution in quasi-unidirectional non-crimp fabric based composite materials for wind turbine blades

The fatigue failure of wind turbine blades is controlled by failure mechanisms on multiple scales spanning single fiber fatigue failure at the sub-micron scale, over the fiber bundle structure on the millimeter scale to the quasi-unidirectional non-crimp fabric on the meter scale. At the smaller scales, the 3D x-ray computertomography technique is used non-destructive to observe the fatigue damage evolution on the fiber and bundle scale. Those observations are then linked to the larger scales through mechanical testing of representative volumes of the non-crimp fabric bundle structure. Numerically, those non-crimp fabric bundle structures extracted from the 3D x-ray scans can be used in a multi-scale based finite element models used for understanding the parameters controlling the fatigue damage evolutions. During tensiontension fatigue testing, the damage mechanism is shown to be controlled by local architecture of the socalled backing bundle structure present in the non-crimp fabric. This mechanism is demonstrated to be highly dependent on the presence of curing induced residual stresses. Residual stresses which for an epoxy matrix system can be controlled by the chosen cure profile and thereby the mold time during wind turbine blade manufacture

Absolut idealisme – et glemt potentiale?

Physicalism is the most widely accepted metaphysical view today. The thesis of physicalism, however, seems unable to adequately explain the existence and nature of consciousness. Moreover, the thesis is not itself a scientific finding but must be characterized as a metaphysical assumption. Hence, there are strong reasons to explore alternatives to the physicalist view. While metaphysical theses based on classic idealistic views like subjective or absolute idealism have been largely absent from the philosophical debate during most of the 20th century, in the last few decades theses of this kind have been advocated, most notably by John Foster and Timothy Sprigge. Russell’s and Moore’s influential refutations of idealism have been severely questioned by recent scholarship, which means that conventional arguments against absolute idealism appear to be significantly less well-founded than what is usually assumed. With Sprigge’s panpsychistic absolute idealistic metaphysical system as the basis and by incorporating key elements in Foster’s thinking, the present paper outlines an idealistic thesis which, it is argued, first of all escapes the problem of consciousness inherent in physicalism and secondly counters important arguments raised against Sprigge’s views, including the question of personal identity and the problem of the one and the many. In addition, this thesis can be seen as naturalistic in a broad sense, thereby potentially being of existential relevance also within the framework of modernity. Thus, it is the aim of the present paper to argue – although sketchily – that despite its controversial character in the light of contemporary mainstream views, panpsychistic absolute idealism demonstrates a significant explanatory power and is therefore of philosophical interest as a subject for further study