CORTIR – Phase II Cost, Risk and Transition zone Innovative Reinforcement

This project focus on the shear web disbond failure in the transition zone of large wind turbine blades. This failure mode cannot be detected from the outside and if left unattended can progress to critical blade failure. Bladena will during the project develop and demonstrate a new innovative retrofit solution that will remove the root cause of shear web disbonds and are based on a patent owned by Bladena. Extensive testing and numerical analyses will be performed during the product development phase. Field installation of the developed solution and measurements of the effect will validate the final solution.

The project will also develop an innovative approach towards the way that field inspections are performed nowadays. Investigations of state-of-the-art inspection and repair methods will be conducted. This will lead to the creation of a set of guidelines to help Wind Turbine Owners (WTOs) and Independent Service Providers (ISPs) to choose between different maintenance strategies for wind turbine blades. These guidelines will be using a damage tolerant approach and be based on advanced cost and risk analyses for different maintenance strategies.