Abstract. As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. However, as wind turbines get increasingly larger, new challenges within the design, manufacture and operation of the turbine are presented. One such challenge is leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades. With larger wind turbine blades, tip speeds begin to reach over 300 km h−1. As water droplets impact along the leading edge of the blade, rain erosion begins to occur, increasing maintenance costs and reducing the design life of the blade. In response to this, a new leading edge protection component (LEP) for offshore for wind turbine blades is being developed, which is manufactured from thermoplastic polyurethane. In this paper, an advanced finite element analysis (FEA) model of this new leading edge protection component has been developed. Within this study, the FEA model has been validated against experimental trials at demonstrator level, comparing the deflection and strains during testing, and was found to be in good agreement. The model is then applied to a full-scale wind turbine blade and is then modelled with the LEP bonded onto the blade's leading edge and compared to previously performed experimental trials, where the results were found to be well aligned when comparing the deflections of the blade. The methodology used to develop the FEA model can be applied to other wind blade designs in order to incorporate the new leading edge protection component to eliminate the risk of rain erosion and improve the sustainability of wind turbine blade manufacture while increasing the service life of the blade.

Over the past 30 years, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. As the industry grows so too does the size of the wind turbines themselveslarge wind turbines can now generate up to 15 MW. However, with larger turbines comes additional structural challenges to overcome, where one such challenge is erosion along the leading edge of the blade due to water impingement at the higher tip speeds of the blade. Therefore, in this paper, the development of a novel solution for preventing leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades (LEP) is presented. Primarily, this paper describes the experimental testing campaigns that were performed during LEP development. Based on the results from the rain erosion testing of selected materials, their manufacturability and other mechanical properties, thermoplastic polyurethane has been selected as the most suitable material to manufacture the LEP. The LEP component was de-risked through demonstrator testing and then bonded to the leading edge of a full-scale wind turbine blade. Structural (dynamic, static and fatigue mechanical) testing was performed on the blade with no significant damage observed. The next stage of development is operational trials on a wind turbine in marine conditions.

Abstract. As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. However, as wind turbines get increasingly larger, new challenges within the design, manufacture and operation of the turbine are presented. One such challenge is leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades. With larger wind turbine blades, tip speed begin to reach over 500 km per hour. As water droplets impact along the leading edge of the blade, rain erosion begins to occur, increasing maintenance costs and reducing the design life of the blade. In response to this, a new leading edge protection component (LEP) for offshore for wind turbine blades is being developed, which is manufactured from thermoplastic polyurethane. In this paper, an advanced finite element analysis (FEA) model of this new leading edge protection component has been developed. Within this study, the FEA model has been validated against experimental trials at demonstrator level, comparing the deflection and strains during testing and found to be in good agreement. The model is then applied to a full-scale wind turbine blade is then modelled with the LEP bonded onto the blade’s leading edge and compared to previously performed experimental trials, where the results were found to be well aligned when comparing the deflections of the blade. The methodology used to develop the FEA model can be applied to other wind blade designs in order to incorporate the new leading edge protection component to eliminate the risk of rain erosion and improve the sustainability of wind turbine blade manufacture, while increasing the service life of the blade.