Repair of Wind Turbine Blades: Costs and Quality

Abstract

Repair and maintenance operations of wind turbines constitute a significant part of costs of wind energy. In this paper, technologies of structural repair of damaged wind turbine blades are reviewed. Costs of repair, and technological contribution to the costs are discussed. Technologies of repair are compared, including hand layup lamination, vacuum repair with hand layup and infusion, ultraviolet curing and high temperature thermal curing systems. Computational models of repaired blades, and curing as kinetic process are presented. Void formation during repair and curing, and the void influence on the post-repair reliability of blades is discussed.

A New Concept of Sustainable Wind Turbine Blades: Bio-Inspired Design with Engineered Adhesives

“…Wind turbines are subjected to long term, permanent randomly varying mechanical and environmental loading, with current usual lifetime of 20 to 30 years. The estimated costs for each repair event are very high, for instance, an average offshore blade repair can cost 30 k EUR, and a new blade can cost 200 k EUR [10].…”