Experimental blade research - Phase 2

The need for more fast and cost effective wind turbine blade design tools has been addressed by several of the major players in the Danish wind power industry. Thus, to meet the demands from the wind turbine manufactures it is necessary to constantly focus on ways to increase profitability and reliability of wind turbines and to realize these ambitions without compromising time and cost. The main objective of the project is to develop an experimental platform which is needed to demonstrate strength and reliability of future optimized wind turbine blades. This requires improved measuring tools and development of a design framework with best-practice recommendations that gives the designer guidance on how to choose the numerical analyses and structural tests needed to obtain a cost-optimal design at a certain level of reliability. The project is managed by Risø DTU, and have the leading wind turbine (blade) manufactures (Vestas, LM-Windpower), subcontractors (SSP-Technology, Hexcel, Baumer), the commercial test facilities (Blaest), DNV, and DONG, as Danish (based) industrial partners in the project. This ensures the technology and knowledge transfer from the project to the wind industry. The German research institute DLR (Deutsche Luft-und Rumfart) and the Swedish research institute Swerea Sicomp are also participants in the project where they will contribute with their comprehensive experience in design and reliability tests which are used in the airplane industry. This will in particular provide the Danish wind industry with a more reliability-based design framework