The use of wood for wind turbine blade construction

The interrelationships between moisture and wood, conditions for dry rot spore activity, the protection of wood fibers from moisture, wood resin composites, wood laminating, quality control, and the mechanical properties of wood are discussed. The laminated veneer and the bonded sawn stock fabrication techniques, used in the construction of a turbine blade with a monocoque 'D' section forming the leading edge and a built up trailing edge section, are described. A 20 foot root end sample complete with 24 bonded-in studs was successfully subjected to large onetime loads in both the flatwise and edgewise directions, and to fatigue tests. Results indicate that wood is both a viable and advantageous material for use in wind turbine blades. The basic material is reasonably priced, domestically available, ecologically sound, and easily fabricated with low energy consumption

Fabrication of low-cost Mod-OA wood composite wind turbine blades

The wood composite blades were fabricated by using epoxy resin-bonded laminates of Douglas fir veneers for the leading edge spar sections and honeycomb-cored birch plywood panels for the blade trailing edge or afterbody sections. The blade was joined to the wind turbine hub assembly by epoxy resin-bonded steel load take-off studs. The wood composite blades were installed in the Mod-OA wind turbine test facility at Kahuku, Hawaii. The wood composite blades have successfully completed high power (average of 150 kW) operations for an eighteen month period (nearly 8,000 hr) before replacement with another set of wood composite blades. The original set of blades was taken out of service because of the failure of the shank on one stud. An inspection of the blades at NASA-Lewis showed that the shank failure was caused by a high stress concentration at a corrosion pit on the shank fillet radius which resulted in fatigue stresses in excess of the endurance limit

Apollo Spacecraft Systems Analysis Program. Task E-34E - LM Landing Radar Performance over Rough Terrain

Performance prediction for LM landing radar over rough terrai

Hawaii Zuteck Rotor Project: Compilation of project reports

Summarizes project to design and build aileron retrofit blades for a 600 kW upwind, teetered rotor, full-span pitch control, horizontal-axis wind turbine

Four-Point Bending Strength Testing of Pultruded Fiberglass Composite Wind Turbine Blade Sections

The ultimate strength of the PS Enterprises pultruded blade section was experimentally determined under four-point bending at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Thirteen 8-foot long full-scale blade segments were individually tested to determine their maximum moment carrying capability. Three airfoil-bending configurations were tested: high- and low-pressure skin buckling, and low pressure skin buckling with foam interior reinforcement. Maximum strain was recorded for each sample on the compressive and tensile surfaces of each test blade. Test data are compared to the results of three analytical buckling prediction methods. Based on deviations from the linear strain versus load curve, data indicate a post-buckling region. High-pressure side buckling occurred sooner than low-pressure side buckling. The buckling analyses were conservative for both configurations, but high-pressure side buckling in particular was substantially under-predicted. Both high- and low-pressure buckling configurations had very similar failure loads. These results suggests that a redundant load path may be providing strength to the section in the post-buckling region, making the onset of panel buckling a poor predictor of ultimate strength for the PS Enterprises pultrusion

Analysis of winglets and sweep on wind turbine blades using a lifting line vortex particle method in complex inflow conditions

An in-house aero-elastic vortex code, called MIRAS, is used to investigate the aerodynamic performance of winglets and sweep on horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) blades in simple and complex inflow conditions. Previous studies using vortex codes applied to study winglets and blade sweep on HAWTs have typically not considered complex inflow conditions such as turbulent wind and shear. The reasons may include the absence of modeling capability, the computational cost associated with simulating long turbulent time series, and/or the computational cost associated with resolving the blade tips to a very fine level. A preliminary study is performed here, where the MIRAS code is applied on the NREL 5MW wind turbine with an arbitrary winglet shape and blade sweep. Results indicate that wind turbine blades with sweep or winglets might be better in performance compared to their straight blade counterparts

Structural properties of laminated Douglas fir/epoxy composite material

This publication contains a compilation of static and fatigue and strength data for laminated-wood material made from Douglas fir and epoxy. Results of tests conducted by several organizations are correlated to provide insight into the effects of variables such as moisture, size, lamina-to-lamina joint design, wood veneer grade, and the ratio of cyclic stress to steady stress during fatigue testing. These test data were originally obtained during development of wood rotor blades for large-scale wind turbines of the horizontal-axis (propeller) configuration. Most of the strength property data in this compilation are not found in the published literature. Test sections ranged from round cylinders 2.25 in. in diameter to rectangular slabs 6 in. by 24 in. in cross section and approximately 30 ft long. All specimens were made from Douglas fir veneers 0.10 in. thick, bonded together with the WEST epoxy system developed for fabrication and repair of wood boats. Loading was usually parallel to the grain. Size effects (reduction in strength with increase in test volume) are observed in some of the test data, and a simple mathematical model is presented that includes the probability of failure. General characteristics of the wood/epoxy laminate are discussed, including features that make it useful for a wide variety of applications. 9 refs

PTPN4 germline variants result in aberrant neurodevelopment and growth

Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are pleomorphic regulators of eukaryotic cellular responses to extracellular signals that function by modulating the phosphotyrosine of specific proteins. A handful of PTPs have been implicated in germline and somatic human disease. Using exome sequencing, we identified missense and truncating variants in PTPN4 in six unrelated individuals with varying degrees of intellectual disability or developmental delay. The variants occurred de novo in all five subjects in whom segregation analysis was possible. Recurring features include postnatal growth deficiency or excess, seizures, and, less commonly, structural CNS, heart, or skeletal anomalies. PTPN4 is a widely expressed protein tyrosine phosphatase that regulates neuronal cell homeostasis by protecting neurons against apoptosis. We suggest that pathogenic variants in PTPN4 confer risk for growth and cognitive abnormalities in humans.The article is available via Open Access. Click on the 'Additional link' above to access the full-text.Unknow