Publications

Mechanical Testing Summary: Optimized Carbon Fiber Composites in Wind Turbine Blade Design

Miller, David A.; Samborsky, Daniel D.; Ennis, Brandon L.

The objective of the Optimized Carbon Fiber project is to assess the commercial viability to develop cost-competitive wind-specific carbon fiber composites to enable larger rotors for increased energy capture. Although glass fiber reinforcement is the primary structural material in wind blade manufacturing, utilization of carbon fiber has been identified as a key enabler for achieving larger rotors because of its higher specific stiffness (stiffness per unit mass), specific strength (strength per unit mass), and fatigue resistance in comparison to glass. This report contains the testing process and results from the mechanical characterization portion of the project. Low-cost textile carbon fiber materials are tested along with a baseline, commercial carbon fiber system common to the wind industry. Material comparisons are made across coupons of similar manufacturing and quality to assess the properties of the novel carbon fibers. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has been funded by the United States Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office as part of the Optimized Carbon Fiber Composites for Wind Turbine Blades project. The authors would also like to recognize the contributions of project member Bob Norris at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in identification of the low-cost carbon fiber materials studied, in addition to his work with a commercial pultruder to produce the third-party pultrusions tested within this study.