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Rain erosion performance of the material to be used as the leading edge protection of the wind turbine blades

Ghantasala, Udaya (2021) Rain erosion performance of the material to be used as the leading edge protection of the wind turbine blades.

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Abstract:In recent years the size of wind turbine blades is growing rapidly which increases their tip speeds over 110 m/s. When these blades are being operated, they are exposed to continuous impacts with rain droplets, hails and insects. This leads to the erosion of the blade causing significant loss in aerodynamic efficiency of the wind turbine blade resulting in considerable reduction of annual energy production. Timely and expensive, maintenance and repair works are required to control the progression of damage. One of the possible solutions for this problem is to develop an integrated leading-edge protection (InLEP) for the leading edge of the wind turbine blades to protect the blade from erosion. This research project studies the rain erosion performance of the material used for the leading edge of the wind turbine blades. A pulsating jet erosion test (PJET) setup available at the University of Twente was used to conduct the erosion tests on ABS material. The most important parameters of the PJET setup such as nozzle diameter, impact velocity, impact frequency and angle of impact were kept constant throughout the research. To identify the occurrence and development of the erosion in the ABS material, a set of experiments ranging from 200.000 to 1.200.000 impacts were conducted and the height maps of the eroded specimens were obtained by using a Keyence VK9710 laser scanning confocal microscope. A methodology for analysis of these eroded samples was created using volume loss algorithm and Ssk surface roughness parameter. To analyse the effect of water layer on the sample on the rain erosion, a similar set of experiments was conducted with a water layer removal system installed to the PJET setup. To study the influence of additional strains in the material on its rain erosion performance, the fixture clamp was modified in order to induce a tensile loading on the specimen. Using the tensile clamp, a test was conducted on the specimen by inducing a 3% strain. From this research it was concluded that the material possesses a very short acceleration phase which leads it to enter the maximum erosion state in short duration after the end of its incubation phase. The end of incubation phase of the ABS material was identified after 600.000 impacts when there is a water layer on the sample and at 400.000 impacts when a water layer removal system was employed. The rain erosion performance of the ABS material was influenced when either of additional strains were induced on the sample or a water layer removal system was employed to the PJET setup.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:51 materials science, 52 mechanical engineering
Programme:Mechanical Engineering MSc (60439)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/85944
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