Finite element based damage assessment of composite tidal turbine blades

11th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures

物理学;材料科学

Fagan, Edward M.^1,3,4 ; Leen, Sean B.^2,3,4 ; Kennedy, Ciaran R.^2,3,4 ; Goggins, Jamie^1,3,4

Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics, NUI Galway, Ireland^1

Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics, NUI Galway, Ireland^2

Marine Research Energy Ireland (MaREI) Research Centre, Galway, Ireland^3

Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy Research, NUI Galway, Ireland^4

关键词: Construction method;    damage;    Finite element software;    Marine current turbines;    Operating condition;    Renewables sectors;    Structural strength;    User material subroutine;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/628/1/012106/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/628/1/012106

学科分类：材料科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

With significant interest growing in the ocean renewables sector, horizontal axis tidal current turbines are in a position to dominate the marketplace. The test devices that have been placed in operation so far have suffered from premature failures, caused by difficulties with structural strength prediction. The goal of this work is to develop methods of predicting the damage level in tidal turbines under their maximum operating tidal velocity. The analysis was conducted using the finite element software package Abaqus; shell models of three representative tidal turbine blades are produced. Different construction methods will affect the damage level in the blade and for this study models were developed with varying hydrofoil profiles. In order to determine the risk of failure, a user material subroutine (UMAT) was created. The UMAT uses the failure criteria designed by Alfred Puck to calculate the risk of fibre and inter-fibre failure in the blades. The results show that degradation of the stiffness is predicted for the operating conditions, having an effect on the overall tip deflection. The failure criteria applied via the UMAT form a useful tool for analysis of high risk regions within the blade designs investigated.