Materials & Structures

With the growing size of rotor blades the blade mass increases more than proportionally to the blade energy output. Hence, the optimization of the material use becomes increasingly important. Application of very large blades may even become practically impossible without further knowledge of the material behaviour since the dominating loads on the blades might be caused by the weight of the blades. At the same time for offshore wind turbines the required reliability of the blades has to be very high due to the poor accessibility.

The main research question being addressed in this priority area is: “What is the structural behaviour of rotor blades and its materials and how can this behaviour be described, explained and modelled in order to enable the increase in size and reliability of rotor blades and other wind turbine components?”.

ECN-WMC aims with the priority area Materials and Structures at increasing its knowledge of the structural behaviour of the blade and its materials under the complex loading and the environmental conditions and to make this knowledge applicable for wind turbine and blade manufacturers.  This enables further optimization of current designs and the design of the next generation of blades.

ECN-WMC has a strong international position in the field of material research and testing of materials and components. This position is reached and maintained by its highly experienced experts, the intense contacts with industry and universities and the combination of theoretical and experimental research with the unique experimental test facilities. ECN-WMC participates in many international structural research projects as partner, coordinator and initiator. Beside this fundamental work ECN-WMC carries out many research projects in the same area that is contracted by the industry.