Additive manufacturing process towards wind turbine components

Abstract

In current Industrial world, there has been an increase in demand for wind power. Few of the major challenges in wind industry is the component complexity and material reliability. Thus, there is a need of determining alternative and more efficient manufacturing method. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a process which enables layer-wise fabrication of complex parts directly from CAD files without part-specific tooling. Additive manufacturing increases design freedom for building complex part geometries that cannot be made by traditional manufacturing methods. The ability to build customized integrated parts with less material wastage is desirable. The main aim of this paper is to discuss about the possibilities of using AM in spare parts production in wind Industry. To justify the compatibility of AM, there is a need to determine the loads acting on the wind turbine components. Hence, load analysis of AOC 50 kW reference wind turbine was simulated through FAST and Rainflow counting algorithm. The results from the simulations were used to compare the experimental fatigue data of AM material with one of commonly used wind turbine material.