The Application of Bio-based Composites in Wind Turbine Blades
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Wind energy is a sustainable alternative to traditional fossil fuel sources. Improvements are
constantly being made to maximize turbine efficiency, which is only increasing wind’s potential
to be viable on a large-scale. Blades must be constructed using low density materials with high
stiffness. To meet this criteria manufacturers gravitate towards composite materials to achieve
the necessary mechanical properties. Composites are simply two or more materials combined
and they are advantageous in their ability to provide superior mechanical properties than each
material would individually. In a wind turbine blade, the class of composites used are fiber
reinforced composites (FRC) which consist of long fibers embedded in a resin matrix. The
materials of choice for FRC turbine blades are often synthetic glass fibers set in epoxy resins
due to their ability to perform well at relatively low cost. However, synthetic materials are not
readily biodegradable and the thermoset nature of the composite blades make recycling
challenging. The use of bio-based composites opposed to the current synthetic materials in
wind turbine blades could mitigate the issues that come with end of life disposal while still
providing composite strength. Fully biodegradable blades could allow for improvement in the
sustainability of wind turbines. The mechanical properties, design and feasibility of bio-based
composite wind turbine blades are explored. The findings suggest that many fibers such as jute,
hemp and flax could perform similar to synthetic glass fibers with several modifications and
bio-based resins also demonstrate good properties in comparison to traditional epoxies.
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http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6670
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en