Fiber Orientation Effect on the Behavior of the Composite Materials of the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blade (HAWTB)

Abstract

The use of composite materials has increased significantly, especially in the manufacture of wind turbine blades. Therefore the mechanical behaviors of these materials have to be evaluated. In this work four composite materials were investigated (Carbon fiber, Kevlar49 fiber, E-glass fibers and S-glass fibers). A developed model under Ansys Composite Prepost (ACP) has been used to assess the mechanical strength and stiffness of the composite blade to determine the optimal configuration. In this context, parametric studies were carried out, in order to evaluate the fiber orientation and material properties effect on the mechanical behavior of multilayered blade. The results show that the configurations (Carbon fiber, ±35), (Kevlar49 fiber, ±35) and (Kevlar49 fiber, ±45) are the most efficient configurations in terms of resistance to mechanical stress. Besides, the orientation configuration 90/0 support more than the other suggested configurations to flexural displacement with approximately 34.14 mm for the Carbon ±55 configuration.