University of Twente Student Theses
Replacement of glued on components on wind turbine blades
Hoek, L.S. (2014) Replacement of glued on components on wind turbine blades.
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| Abstract: | At LM Wind Power, several components are glued in the shell of the wind turbine blade. Two projects were carried out for the replacement of some of these components. The first project concerned web catchers. These parts are responsible for the correct placement of the main webs in a turbine blade. Two types are currently in use, one of which is quite expensive and probably over-engineered. Both serve the same purpose, although the more expensive one is used in more demanding circumstances. A project was carried out to replace this more expensive part with a cheaper part, while investigating the possibility to replace both parts to save costs. Multiple suppliers were contacted and the most cost effective and fitting design was chosen. An extruded polymer design was proposed and the necessary quotations were received. Using this information, it was determined that the new design is a viable candidate for the replacement of the more expensive design at a large plant in the LM Wind Power company, although a product sample is needed to verify the fatigue strength of the glue layer on this component, before introduction in the production can begin. The part is also a viable candidate for replacement of the cheaper part. The higher quality of the design should be able to improve the accuracy of placing the web-assembly thereby improving the closing process. When the internship was completed, talks were underway to start a follow-up project to investigate this last possibility. The second project focused on the replacement of brackets and clamps in use with a C-stiffener, a third smaller web which is part of some blade designs. Instead of being a cost-out project, this project was executed to increase the safety of the turbine blades. A second objective was to increase the ease of use of these components in the blade production process. A new part was designed using the information of the part currently in use. The part design was done in close cooperation with a supplier using a new production method. After a number of iterations a final design was created which would increase the safety significantly and create a small improvement in the ease of use. At the end of the internship, prototypes were ready to be ordered. Since the safety improvement was expected to be significant, these prototypes would be used in a test closure to determine the suitability. Later tests with the prototype should determine the exact safety. A third, smaller, section of this report describes creep tests performed in support of another project carried out at the time. Results of this project helped in establishing the suitability of the material for the use on blades. |
| Item Type: | Internship Report (Master) |
| Clients: | LM Wind Power, Denmark |
| Faculty: | ET: Engineering Technology |
| Subject: | 52 mechanical engineering |
| Programme: | Mechanical Engineering MSc (60439) |
| Keywords: | Wind industry, part redesign, brackets, web catchers, composites, polymers, glue |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/72350 |
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