Wind Blade Composite Design, Manufacturing and Experimental Testing

Abstract

The design and manufacture of composite material sandwich type blade is presented. Stainless steel rods and ribs, are the internal structure, core is foam, between ribs. The skin is a laminate of fiber glass and a matrix of epoxy, with a laminae staking sequence of -45°, 45° and 90 °, 0 ° up to six layers. Three point bending test, shows that the blade can withstand approximately 200 lb, impact results showed that the blade is damaged with energy 33.849 J, resulting in delamination and cracking of the fiber and crazing of the matrix. Cantilevered results showed that the blade can support only 8 lb. A new design of the blade support is presented to avoid critical damage. Key Terms - Composite Blade, Design, Manufacturing, Testing Materials.