Preliminary Structural Design of Composite Blades for Two- and Three-Blade Rotors

<p>A computerized method has been developed to aid in the preliminary design of composite wind turbine blades. The method allows for arbitrary specification of the chord twist and airfoil geometry along the blade and an arbitrary number of shear webs. Given the blade external geometry description and its design load distribution the Fortran code uses ultimate-strength and buckling-resistance criteria to compute the design thickness of load-bearing composite laminates. The code also includes an analysis option to obtain blade properties if a composite laminates schedule is prescribed. These properties include bending stiffness torsion stiffness mass moments of inertia elastic-axis offset and center-of-mass offset along the blade. Nonstructural materials-gelcoat nexus and bonding adhesive-are also included for computation of mass. The code includes an option to format the output properties that can be directly input to advanced aeroelastic codes. This report summarizes the structural layout of composite laminates within the blade the design approach and the computational process. Finally we present the results of two composite blades designed using this code in support of a project covering comparison of two- and three-blade rotors for a hypothetical turbine.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>