COMPUTATIONAL MICROMECHANICS OF WIND BLADE MATERIALS: RECENT ACTIVITIES AT THE MATERIALS RESEARCH DIVISION, RIS DTU Leon Mishnaevsky

Jr. (1), Povl Brndsted (1), Hai Qing (1), Huaiwen Wang (1, 2), Rasmus C. stergaard (3) and Bent F. Srensen (1)

(1) Materials Research Division, Ris National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark, Roskilde, Denmark (2) On-leave from Tianjin University of Commerce, China, (3) LM Wind Power Blades, Composite Mechanics, Roskilde, Denmark

ABSTRACT Recent research works in the area of 3D computational microstructural modelling, virtual testing and numerical optimization of wind blade materials, carried out at the Materials Research Division, Ris DTU (Programme Composites and Materials Mechanics) are summarized. The works presented here have been carried out in the framework of several research projects: EU FP6 UpWind, Danida project Development of wind energy technologies in Nepal and SinoDanish project 3D Virtual Testing of composites for wind energy applications as well as the Framework Program Interface design of composite materials and recently established Danish Centre for Composite Structures and Materials for Wind Turbines. Different groups of materials, which are used or have a potential for use for the wind turbine blades, are modelled with the use of the methods of the computational micromechanics, in particular: (1) glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites used in the large wind turbine blades, (2) different sorts of timber, used in small wind turbines (first of all, in developing countries) and (3) nanoparticle reinforced polymer matrix composites (which have a potential to be used as components for future high strength wind blades). On the basis of the developed 3D microstructural finite element models of these materials, we analyzed the effect of their microstructures on damage resistance, strength and stiffness. The methods of the 3D model design and results of the simulations are discussed in this paper.

Mishnaevsky Jr., Brndsted, Qing, Wang, stergaard and Srensen

1.

WHY COMPUTATIONAL MICROMECHANICS?

The efficiency and practical usability of wind energy technology depend on the reliability and lifetime of wind turbines (Brndsted et al., 2005). The repair and maintenance of wind turbines are typically quite expensive and labor consuming. However, failure of wind turbine parts, notably, wind blades, does occur sometimes, and it leads to huge expenses and has negative effect on the public image of wind energy technology. But how can one predict and improve the lifetime of wind blades? Wind blades are subject to complex, multiaxial, cyclic loading, and the failure processes are controlled by microscale degradation of the materials (Mishnaevsky Jr et al., 2010, Zhou et al., 2010). Experimental testing of different materials under various service conditions would require huge efforts and costs. The solution for this problem is the application of numerical experiments in which various materials which are used or have a potential to be used for wind energy applications are tested in computational models. The computational models used should include both realistic microscale structures of the materials and the realistic deformation and damage mechanisms. The approach in which the mechanical behavior and strength of a materials is studied as a function of its microstructures on the basis of numerical models is realized in the framework of computational micro- and mesomechanics of materials (Mishnaevsky Jr, 2007, Schmauder and Mishnaevsky Jr, 2008). In this paper, we present some computational micromechanical studies of the strength and degradation of various wind blade materials, carried out at the Materials Research Division, Programme Composites and Materials Mechanics, Ris DTU, during the last few years. The research studies were carried out in the framework of several research projects:: EU FP6 UpWind, Danida project Development of wind energy technologies in Nepal and SinoDanish project 3D Virtual Testing of composites for wind energy applications as well as Framework Program Interface design of composite materials (FTP) and recently established Danish Centre for Composite Structures and Materials for Wind Turbines (DCCSM)..

2.

POLYMER COMPOSITE MATERIALS FOR LARGE WIND TURBINES

The most widely used group of materials for large and, potentially, extra large wind turbines are polymer based composites, usually with glass or (more seldom) carbon fiber reinforcement. In this section, we consider the development of computational, microstructure-based models for the long fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites and the studies of the material degradation with the use of the models. 2.1. Glass fiber reinforced polymers: Automatic generation of the 3D finite element models of multifiber unit cells and 3D micromechanical finite elements analysis of microstructure-strength relationships of the materials. In order to study the effect of microscale parameters of wind turbine blade composites on their strength, a special software for the automatic generation of 3D computational micromechanical models of the composites was developed and used in the numerical experiments (Mishnaevsky Jr and Brndsted, 2009a). Figure 1 shows the micrograph of a fracture surface of a composite, and the 3D finite element model as well as the crack growth scheme. Using the developed software, we studied the effect of variability of fiber strengths and viscoelasticity of matrix on the damage evolution, and competition of damage modes: The effects of the statistical variability of fiber strengths, viscosity of the polymer matrix as well as the interaction between the damage processes in matrix, fibers and interface are investigated numerically, by testing different multifiber unit cell models of the composites (Mishnaevsky Jr and Brndsted, 2009a, Wang et al., 2009).

Computational Micromechanics of Wind Blade Materials: Recent activities at Ris DTU

It was demonstrated in the simulations that fibers with constant strengths ensure the higher strength of a composite at the pre-critical load, while the fibers with randomly distributed strengths lead to the higher strength of the composite at post-critical loads. In the case of randomly distributed fiber strengths, the damage growth in fibers seems to be almost independent from the crack length in matrix, while the influence of matrix cracks on the beginning of fiber cracking is clearly seen for the case of the constant fiber strength. Competition between the matrix cracking and interface debonding was observed in the simulations: in the areas with intensive interface cracking, both fiber fracture and the matrix cracking are delayed. Reversely, in the area, where a long matrix crack is formed, the fiber cracking does not lead to the interface damage. Another important effect of the composite microstructure on its destruction is the crack bridging by fibers oriented parallel to the cracking plane (called fiber cross-over bridging, see Srensen et al., 2008, stergaard, 2008). A micromechanical model of mixed mode fibre cross-over bridging has been developed (see Figure 2). The model predicts coupled mixed mode bridging laws (traction-separation relations); both normal and shear tractions depend on the normal and tangential crack opening displacements. It was observed in the simulations that the normal traction decreases rapidly towards zero with increasing normal and tangential crack opening displacements. In contrast, the shear traction increases with increasing normal and tangential crack opening displacements, approaching a constant value, corresponding to the shear stress under a pure Mode II crack opening displacement. For a fixed number of bridging ligaments, the toughening due to the cross-over bridging mechanisms is predicted to be much higher under Mode II and mixed mode than under pure Mode I.

Fig.

1.

Micrograph of a fracture surface of a composite material, 3D FE micromechanical model, crack growth between the fibers, and fiber bridging over the matrix crack (Mishnaevsky Jr and Brndsted, 2009)

Mishnaevsky Jr., Brndsted, Qing, Wang, stergaard and Srensen

D1=0.24 D2=0.37

D1=0.24 D2=0.43

Fig. 2. Micromechanical model of mixed mode cross-over fiber bridging (Srensen et al., 2008)

Fig. 3. Left: Schema of statistical models of fibers with randomly distributed misalignments. Right: Comparison of damage (density of kinked fibers, D) for random and clustered fiber distributions (top view)

2.2. Carbon fiber reinforced polymers: Kinking effect and compression strength. A very promising alternative to the glass fiber composites is the group of carbon fiber reinforced composites, which have much higher strength. Glass fiber composites typically have compressive strengths comparable to the tensile strength. In contrast, the compressive strength of carbon composites is significantly lower than their tensile strength. While the glass fibers fail often by cracking both under tensile and compressive loading, the carbon fibers demonstrate one more damage mechanisms under compressive loading, namely, fiber kinking. The carbon fiber kinking is controlled by both local fiber misalignment and the matrix properties. In order to analyze the mechanisms of the fiber kinking and its dependence on the local microstructure, statistical computational model was developed on the basis of the Monte-Carlo method and the Budiansky-Fleck fiber kinking condition (Mishnaevsky Jr and Brndsted, 2009b). The schema of the multifiber unit cell with random misalignments is given in Figure 3, upper. With this model, the effects of fiber misalignment variability, fiber clustering, load sharing rules on the compressive and fatigue strength of rotor blade materials are studied numerically. It is demonstrated that the clustering of fibers has a negative effect of the damage resistance of a composite (Figure 3, lower). Further, the static compressive loading model is generalized for the case of cyclic compressive loading, with and without microdegradation of the matrix, and with and without random variations of loading. It was observed that the random variations of loading shorten the lifetime of the composite: the larger the variability of applied load, the shorter the lifetime. The model was further generalized to include the irregular fiber waviness and the interface defects. Considering the cases of small and large interface defects with different density, we observed that the small interface microcracks do not lead to the sufficient reduction of compressive strength even at unrealistically high microcrack density. In contrast, large interface defects have a strong effect on the compressive strength of the composite.

Computational Micromechanics of Wind Blade Materials: Recent activities at Ris DTU

2.

TIMBER AS A MATERIAL FOR BLADES OF SMALL WIND TURBINES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

In order to reduce the costs of the wind turbines, and to make wind energy more attractive for developing countries, natural, locally available materials, notably wood, can be used to produce parts of the wind turbines instead of conventional composite materials (Mishnaevsky Jr et al., 2009). Wood is a natural composite which has relatively light weight and excellent fatigue properties, is relatively cheap and easy to work (Mishnaevsky Jr and Qing, 2008). Using of timber wind blades would allow also to produce the turbine parts locally, what would further reduce the costs and strengthen local manufacturers in developing countries. In order to develop the methods of optimal choice of appropriate timber for low cost, locally producible wind turbines, a Danish-Nepalese collaborative research project on Development of wind energy technologies in Nepal on the basis of natural materials was initiated. One of the important aspects of this project has been the development of hierarchical computational models for 3D microstructural analysis of wood strength and stiffness. The computational model, which takes into account multilevel complex microstructure of wood includes all the four levels of the heterogeneous microstructure of earlywood (annual rings as multilayers, honeycomb like cells, multilayered cell walls, unidirectional fibril reinforced composite type microstructure of each layer) (Qing and Mishnaevsky Jr, 2008, 2009abc, 2010): o Macrolevel: annual rings are modeled as multilayers, using the improved 3D rule-of-mixture (Qing and Mishnaevsky Jr, 2010) o Mesolevel: the layered honeycomb like microstructure of cells was modelled as a 3D unit cell with layered walls. The finite element model was generated using the parametric modelling technique. The properties of the layers were taken from the microlevel model, o Submicro- and microlevel: Each of the layers forming the cell walls was considered as an unidirectional, fibril reinforced composite. Taking into account the experimentally determined microfibril angles and content of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in each layer, the elastic properties of the layers were determined with the use of Halpin-Tsai equations Figure 4 gives an example of the FE unit model of earlywood. Using the developed model, the effects of microstructural parameters of wood on the deformation behaviour of wood were studied. In particular, the influence of microfibril angle (MFA) and wood density on the deformation behaviour was considered. Figure 4 (right) shows the influence of microfibril angles (MFA) in the sublayer S2 (Fig.4, left) on the elastic properties, while the MFAs in other sublayers S1 and S3 are fixed on the levels 60o and 75o, respectively. From the computation studies, it was concluded that the variation of microfibril angles represents a rather efficient mechanism of the natural control of stiffness of the main shear load bearing layer of the cell wall. By increasing the MFAs, the drastic increase of shear stiffness in 1-2 direction is achieved, without any sizable losses of the transverse Young modulus and shear modulus in the 23 plane.

Mishnaevsky Jr., Brndsted, Qing, Wang, stergaard and Srensen

Fig.

4. Left: Computational (finite element) unit cell models of softwood (Qing and

Mishnaevsky Jr, 2009a). Right: Effect of microfibril angles in the sublayer S2 on the elastic properties

3. HIERARCHICAL COMPOSITES WITH NANOPARTICLE REINFORCED MATRIX: MATERIALS FOR FUTURE WIND BLADES?
It is known that adding small amount of nanoparticles reinforcement can lead to the drastic, qualitative improvement of the strength and stiffness of polymers. While the nanoparticle reinforced materials have been rather expensive a few years ago, now their prices tend to reduce, and their broad use can be expected in near future. So, the question arises: can the composites with nanoparticle reinforced components become the future wind energy materials? In order to explore the effect of the nanoreinforcement on the mechanical properties and strength of polymer matrix, a series of computational models of nanocomposites has been developed. Using the effective interface model (Odegard et al., 2005), we developed the method of automatic generation of multiparticle unit cells with spherical, plate-like and cylindrical particles surrounded by the effective interface layers. The model can include up to hundreds of particles, and the effective interface layers can overlap. Figure 5 (left) shows the multiparticle unit cell of nanoparticle reinforced composite with effective interface model, and the Young modulus of the composite plotted versus the volume fraction at different interface properties. In the simulations, the strong influence of the effective interface properties on the mechanical behavior of composites was observed. Further, the effect of the nanoparticle clustering on the mechanical properties of the nanoparticle reinforced composites has been studied.

Fig.

5. Multiparticle unit cell of nanoparticle reinforced composite with effective

interface model (Wang et al., 2010)

Computational Micromechanics of Wind Blade Materials: Recent activities at Ris DTU

The further steps include the modeling of damage behavior and load redistribution in hierarchical/hybrid composites with nanoparticle reinforced polymer matrix.

4. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the methods of 2D and 3D computational, microstructure-based modeling of different groups of materials for wind turbine blades are presented. Using the variety of the modeling methods presented here, one can predict the strength, stiffness and lifetime of the materials, optimize their microstructures with view on the better usability for wind turbines, or compare the applicability of different groups of the materials to the use in wind turbines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Community via UpWind project, the project 3D Virtual Testing of composites for wind energy applications supported by the Sino-Danish Committee of Scientific and Technological Collaboration and the Danida Project Development of wind energy technologies in Nepal on the basis of natural materials (Danida Ref. No. 104. DAN.8-913). Furthermore, the authors are grateful to the Danish Council for Strategic Research for its support via the Danish Centre for Composite Structures and Materials for Wind Turbines (DCCSM) (contract number 09-067212).

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