Nonlinear modeling analysis of the coupled mechanical strength and stiffness enhancement of composite materials of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blade (HAWTB)

Composite materials are used in many wind structures such as renewable wind energy conversion systems because of their high-performance ratio (density/rigidity) compared to other materials. In this paper, the mechanical behavior of composite materials has been studied using a finite element (FE) to improve the mechanical strength and stability of a HAWTB. A nonlinear finite element model (FEM) is developed under FE in ACP software to simulate the mechanical behavior of the blade manufactured with composite material subjected to quasi-static wind loads. In this study, the effects of three parameters are discussed: fiber materials, fiber orientation and ply thickness. The results showed a good agreement between our model and the experimental data with an error less than 1.56%. The results of the finite element analysis (FEA) showed that the fiber’s orientation, laminate thickness, and materials properties contribute highly to the mechanical robustness and stiffness of the blade.It has been found that the Carbon/Epoxy composite enhances both strength and stiffness compared to the Kevlar49/Epoxy and Glass/Epoxy. Moreover, It can be noted that the fiber orientation of 90 ∘ provides enhanced mechanical performance namely low deflection and toughness with reference to the biaxial and triaxial fissfig ber orientation. In addition, we reached a difference of deflection and strength of 10 mm and 3.5 MPa, respectively, in comparison with the ± 60 ∘ / 90 ∘ configuration. A blade sub-model has been suggested to investigate the damage localization in the HAWTB. In addition, the effect of weight and cost have been further investigated in this research. Graphical abstract