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This paper presents a new design procedure for large wind turbine blades, which can be used in various case studies. The structural design of 2MW CFRP blade was performed using a verified 2MW GFRP blade model. The structural integrity assessment of the CFRP model demonstrated that the design criteria for tip deformation, buckling failure, and laminate failure in normal wind turbine operating conditions were met. The existing aero-elastic analysis code was not used to estimate the blade load, but the blade’s surface pressure was calculated using CFD. The conventional load analysis code necessitates the establishment of a turbine system and the input of structural characteristics with changes in the structural design specifications. However, when CFD was used to estimate the load, the turbine system was not required and the structure was evaluated against various design cases, making this a useful approach in preliminary design. This new structural design and evaluation procedure for wind blades can be used to review diverse design specifications in the initial design stage.

This chapter studies the application of data-driven methods and specifically principal component analysis (PCA) and singular spectrum analysis (SSA) for purposes of damage assessment in structures and machinery. In this study, data analysis methods PCA and SSA are applied to the measured vibration signals in order to extract information about the state of the structure/machinery and the presence of a fault in it. Two applications are offered, one for damage assessment on a wind turbine blade and another one for fault diagnosis in rolling element bearings. The results demonstrate strong capabilities of the investigated methodology for both structural damage detection and rolling element fault diagnosis. Eventually, a discussion about the capabilities of the studied methodology and the way forward regarding extending its capabilities and applications is offered.

Many kinds of renewable energies have been highly heightened because of the significant energy problems. As one of the most popular renewable energies, the wind power generation system has been widely researched by the scientists and engineers in the world. In this paper, a simulation method with optimization for definition of the computational domain about flow simulation of the wind turbine blades were developed in order to obtain the high performance wind turbine blades for the wind power generation system. Firstly, a numerical method for obtaining the performance of the wind turbine blades was developed by using CFD. In the following step, the circumference diameter and the outflow length were investigated for checking the effect of the computational domain to the accuracy about flow simulation of the wind turbine blades. Finally, a method for definition of the computational domain based on the constructed data-base and optimization technique was obtained through a real optimal design. An optimal computational domain can be obtained with minimum computational effort as demonstrated in the optimization results. The developed method with optimization can be used to improve the performance of the wind turbine blades and these works have made the theoretical basis for definition of the computational domain about flow simulation of the wind turbine blades used for wind power generation system.

With the help of Stokes number of particle, the erosion behavior of wind turbine blade was studied by analysing the process of sand impact with its airfoil. It is found that the sands will bypass the blade and no erosion formed when the Stokes number of particle is smaller than a certain value. With the increase of the Stokes number of particle, the sands begin to impact the blade and erode it, and the erosion area will expand gradually from blade leading edge to entire pressure surface. The most serious erosion must be located at the two sides of the stagnation point.