Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems

Murdy, Paul; Dolson, Jack; Miller, David; Hughes, Scott; Beach, Ryan

doi:10.3390/app11031336

Title: Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems

Abstract

Many marine energy systems designers and developers are beginning to implement composite materials into the load-bearing structures of their devices, but traditional mold-making costs for composite prototyping are disproportionately high and lead times can be long. Furthermore, established molding techniques for marine energy structures generally require many manufacturing steps, such as secondary bonding and tooling. This research explores the possibilities of additively manufactured internal composite molds and how they can be used to reduce costs and lead times through novel design features and processes for marine energy composite structures. In this approach, not only can the composite mold be additively manufactured but it can also serve as part of the final load-bearing structure. We developed a conceptual design and implemented it to produce a reduced-scale additive/composite tidal turbine blade section to fully demonstrate the manufacturing possibilities. The manufacturing was successful and identified several critical features that could expedite the tidal turbine blade manufacturing process, such as single-piece construction, an integrated shear web, and embedded root fasteners. The hands-on manufacturing also helped identify key areas for continued research to allow for efficient, durable, and low-cost additive/composite-manufactured structures for future marine energy systems.

Authors:

^[1]; Dolson, Jack ^[1]; Miller, David ^[2];

^[1];

^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)

Publication Date:: Tue Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2021

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1768280

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5000-78492
Journal ID: ISSN 2076-3417; MainId:32409;UUID:45d75726-9621-4730-a650-e337d4be33d7;MainAdminID:19642

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Applied Sciences

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 2076-3417

Publisher:: MDPI

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER; marine energy; tidal turbine; design for additive manufacturing; composite manufacturing; hybrid structures; composite structures

Citation Formats


                    Murdy, Paul, Dolson, Jack, Miller, David, Hughes, Scott, and Beach, Ryan. Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems.  United States: N. p., 2021. 
Web.  doi:10.3390/app11031336.

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                    Murdy, Paul, Dolson, Jack, Miller, David, Hughes, Scott, & Beach, Ryan. Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.3390/app11031336

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                    Murdy, Paul, Dolson, Jack, Miller, David, Hughes, Scott, and Beach, Ryan. Tue .  
"Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.3390/app11031336.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1768280.

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@article{osti_1768280,

  title        = {Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems},

  author       = {Murdy, Paul and Dolson, Jack and Miller, David and Hughes, Scott and Beach, Ryan},

  abstractNote = {Many marine energy systems designers and developers are beginning to implement composite materials into the load-bearing structures of their devices, but traditional mold-making costs for composite prototyping are disproportionately high and lead times can be long. Furthermore, established molding techniques for marine energy structures generally require many manufacturing steps, such as secondary bonding and tooling. This research explores the possibilities of additively manufactured internal composite molds and how they can be used to reduce costs and lead times through novel design features and processes for marine energy composite structures. In this approach, not only can the composite mold be additively manufactured but it can also serve as part of the final load-bearing structure. We developed a conceptual design and implemented it to produce a reduced-scale additive/composite tidal turbine blade section to fully demonstrate the manufacturing possibilities. The manufacturing was successful and identified several critical features that could expedite the tidal turbine blade manufacturing process, such as single-piece construction, an integrated shear web, and embedded root fasteners. The hands-on manufacturing also helped identify key areas for continued research to allow for efficient, durable, and low-cost additive/composite-manufactured structures for future marine energy systems.},

  doi          = {10.3390/app11031336},

  journal      = {Applied Sciences},

  number       = 3,

  volume       = 11,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2021},

  month        = {Tue Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2021}

}

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Works referenced in this record:

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Murray, Robynne E.; Beach, Ryan; Barnes, David
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Techno-economic analysis of a megawatt-scale thermoplastic resin wind turbine blade
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Title: Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems

Abstract

Citation Formats

Structural validation of a thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade with comparison to a thermoset composite blade journal, February 2021

Structural Design of a Horizontal-Axis Tidal Current Turbine Composite Blade conference, October 2011

3D printed wind turbines part 1: Design considerations and rapid manufacture potential journal, September 2015

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Understanding progressive failure mechanisms of a wind turbine blade trailing edge section through subcomponent tests and nonlinear FE analysis journal, April 2019

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Full-Scale Fatigue Testing of a Wind Turbine Blade in Flapwise Direction and Examining the Effect of Crack Propagation on the Blade Performance journal, October 2017

Structural testing and numerical simulation of a 34m composite wind turbine blade journal, October 2006

Composites Part Production with Additive Manufacturing Technologies journal, January 2017

Manufacturing a 9-Meter Thermoplastic Composite Wind Turbine Blade conference, November 2017

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Recycling glass fiber thermoplastic composites from wind turbine blades journal, February 2019

Increasing recyclability of PC, ABS and PMMA: Morphology and fracture behavior of binary and ternary blends journal, January 2008

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Fusion joining of thermoplastic composite wind turbine blades: Lap-shear bond characterization journal, September 2019

Structural validation of a thermoplastic composite wind turbine blade with comparison to a thermoset composite blade
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Understanding progressive failure mechanisms of a wind turbine blade trailing edge section through subcomponent tests and nonlinear FE analysis
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