ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Integration Team
Palmer, Milliren, Lucon, Ehresman
ME 580 - Smart Structures

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Outline:
Background Sensing Actuation Data Acquisition Manufacturing and Testing Recommendations Peter Eric~Nate Jon Jon Jon Jon ~Eric~Nate

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Background
Wind Power
1926 Betz Limit (~59%) Wind Velocity Blade Length

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Background
Current Sensors
Ground Support Power Generation Housing

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Background
Current Issues
Tower Strikes Reliability of Components limited actual data of the wind loading for design Design and Manufacturing

http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wtrb/powtrain.htm

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Background
Need
Smart Structure
Sensors Control Actuators

Blade Health Monitoring Reliability Wind Loading Profile

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Sensing
Failure Modes
De-lamination of the composite
Base Webs Blade tip
Damaged blade due to tower strike Buckling of the turbine blade in a laboratory Test.

Buckling of the blade

Near the base

Tower strikes
Tip damage
De-lamination of the blades web

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Sensing
Areas of Interest
Base of the turbine blade - High strain regions - Potential buckles Length of the blade - Vibration detection

Tip deflection of 5 kW wind turbine blade designed for personal wind turbines

Actuation area - stress concentrations - un-known forces

Tip deflection of a circular beam given the approximate diameter and load of a 9m wind turbine blade.

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Sensing
Major Steps
Lay-up all necessary components of assembly Re-enforce mounting points for actuator and wiring harnesses Apply sensors, actuator components, a wiring harness Assemble all components
Test and calibrate
One skin in the mold using Veneer Lay-up

Construction of one halve of a turbine blade using the SCRIMP process

Separation of the top and bottom halves of the turbine blade

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Retro Fit Actuator Concerns

Limited placement options
On outside surface without massive destruction and rebuilding

Aerodynamics will need to be maintained Balance must be maintained

Heavy actuators and systems will need to be balanced

Outside of wing mounting causes concerns for running wire or Pneumatic tubing

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Retro Fit Integration issues

Adhesives
How do they affect the material? Reliability, Robustness

Drilling holes for bolts

Weakens structure? Stress concentrations Hard to use nuts and bolts on a very large blade

Taps or tap inserts Pop Rivets Hard mounting required for Large actuators
Brackets Plates Other hardware

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Actuation
Ultimately some force will cause a separation of the boundary layer on the top surface of the wing There are many schemes to accomplish this goal
We

focused on two main schemes

False wall compressed air Control surface powered by linear motor or pneumatic actuators

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Actuation

The false wall compressed air is a very simple form for providing a means for boundary layer separation. The means for this type of actuation were very easy to manufacture. The tube containing the perforations and necessary tubes can be seen in the right of this photo.

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Actuation

The control surface is presently powered by an electric linear actuating motor. This is attached to the control surface with a hinge connection This particular motor is fast acing enough to accommodate the need for deployment time under 500 mS from time of sensing

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Actuation

For implementation on and industrial scale either linear motors or pneumatic actuators are needed. For pneumatic actuators a larger support system is needed
Including a storage tank And an air compressor to refill the tank

All of this support system needs to be mounted in the rotor hub.

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Manufacturing for Testing

I am heading up the linear actuator and wing integration. Integration into a flat plate for testing. Integration into a wing for Computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel testing at U.C. Davis. The blades we are focusing on are 9 meters These blades are the ones that Sandia National labs uses for their research. They are for a 65 kW turbine

ME 500 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Manufacturing for Testing

Flat plate for simple CFD Pictured are the
Linear actuator Mechanism for actuator transfer LVDT position sensor Control surface False wall air pressure tube Solid state relays fuse for relays

ME 500 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Manufacturing for Testing

Presently the blade we have to work with is one for a 50 kW turbine This blade was sectioned out and the linear actuator and control surface were mounted inside.

The purpose of this control surface is to break up the boundary layer during a gust loading condition.
Quick actuation (under 500 mS) is one component of success. Placement of control surface for different loading conditions is desired
Variable location on blade Variable height of control surface

ME 500 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Manufacturing for Industry

Wings would have to be entirely redesigned to encompass the control surface scheme in a reasonable manor Large sections of wings would have to be modified to make the control surfaces work Pneumatic boundary separation schemes are more feasible as a retro fit for present turbines Holes can be drilled in existing wings and tubes for the compressed air and be mounted securely without severe damage to the blades

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Data Acquisition
The interrogators that we would use for testing would probably be the Wx interrogator from Smart Fibres.

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Data Acquisition
The DAQ system we would use for the industrial application for this scheme would be the W5 FBG interrogator also from Smart Fibres

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

Recommendations
Specific Hardware
Data Acquisition
Testing
Wx Series Interrogators

Industrial Use
W5 Series Interrogators

Sensing
Fiber Bragg Grating

Actuation
Linear Pneumatic and Electric Air Jetting

ME 580 Smart Wind Turbine Blades Integration Team

References

Mark Rumsey, Wind Turbine Technology, 11/28/07 http://www.coe.montana.edu/me/faculty/jenkins/Smart%20Structures/default.html Burton, Tony; Sharpe, David; Jenkins, Nick; Bossanyi, Ervin Wind Energy Handbook. John Wiley & Sons. Online version available at: http://www.knovel.com/knovel2/Toc.jsp?BookID=1057&VerticalID=0 Derek Berry, Wind Turbine Blades Manufacturing Improvements and Issues, 2/24/2004, http://www.sandia.gov/wind/2004BladeWorkshopPDFs/DerekBerry.pdf Sundaresen, Schulz, Ghoshal, Structural Health Monitoring Static Test of a Wind Turbine Blade, 8/1999, http://www.osti.gov/bridge FEA Test of a 5kW Turbine Blade, 12/8/07 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aerogenesis.com.au/images/5kW_finite_elem ents_600x345.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.aerogenesis.com.au/5kW_turbine.php&h=345&w=600&sz =28&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=ZC9AADL2DQ4a1M:&tbnh=78&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq %3DFEA%2Btesting%2Bof%2Bwind%2Bturbine%2Bblades%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10% 26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

No Question, Chuck says so