Fatigue of fiberglass beam substructures
- Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Composite material beams representative of wind turbine blade substructure have been designed, fabricated, and tested under constant amplitude flexural fatigue loading. Beam stiffness, strength, and fatigue life are predicted based on detailed finite element analysis and the materials fatigue database developed using standard test coupons and special high frequency minicoupons.Beam results are in good agreement with predictions when premature adhesive and delamination failures are avoided in the load transfer areas. The results show that fiberglass substructures can be designed and fabricated to withstand maximum strain levels on the order of 8,000 microstrain for about 10{sup 6} cycles with proper structural detail design and the use of fatigue resistant laminate constructions. The study also demonstrates that the materials fatigue database and accurate analysis can be used to predict the fatigue life of composite substructures typical of blades.
- OSTI ID:
- 92997
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950116--; ISBN 0-7918-1294-4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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