PSI - Issue 52

Quaiyum M. Ansari et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 52 (2024) 122–132 10 Quaiyum M. Ansari/ Fernando Sánchez/Luis Doménech-Ballester/ Trevor M. Young/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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Fig. 12. Stress on LEP coating at 100 m/sec velocity with 2.0 mm droplet.

4. Conclusions Rain droplet impact has a significant impact on the erosion rate and failure modes of offshore wind turbine leading edge protection coatings. First, a single droplet axisymmetric FE model is developed and validated with theory and tests reported in the literature for low velocity impact, and it is discovered that the impact forces are well correlating. Furthermore, the 3D FE model with an Aluminium plate and 2 mm droplet is developed for high velocity impact ranges from 80 m/sec to 160 m/sec and the peak forces from FE were found in good agreement with the theoretical values. It is also observed that the droplet deforms radially outward after impact and collapses in 15 µs, with half of the droplet deformation occurring in 6 µs. Following that, the leading edge protection 3D coating model is developed, taking into account LEP, primer, filler, and substrate, and it is discovered that the maximum von Mises stress occurs around 60 MPa for the coating system considered. Next research will look into the multilayer wave propagation, acoustic mismatch on interface with fixed LEP with different filler and substrate along with correlation of failure mode to develop a more robust FE model that can aid in the development of more durable coatings. Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for funding the SPOTBlade (Strategies for erosion and fouling Protection of Offshore Turbine Blades) project under its Research Development and Demonstration (RD&D) program (Award No. 21/RDD/671). The authors would also like to thank the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind TCP Task 46 (Erosion of Wind Turbine Blades) for creating an environment for research collaboration. References [1] https://windenergyireland.com/latest-news/4697-new-report-shows-ireland-will-miss-2030-cli mate-targets. (accesed on April 2023). [2] https://emp.lbl.gov, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Reducing Wind Energy Costs through Increased Turbine Size: Is the Sky the Limit?. (accesed on April 2023). [3] Keegan, M.H., Nash, D.H., Stack, M.M., 2013. On erosion issues associated with the leading edge of wind turbine blades. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. 46(38). [4] Cortés, E., Sánchez, F., Domenech, L., Olivares, A., Young, T. M., O’Carroll, A., Chinesta, F. 2017. Manufacturing issues which affect coating erosion performance in wind turbine blades. AIP Conference Proceedings 1896, 1, 030023. [5] Tobin, E.F., Young, T.M., 2017. Analysis of incubation period versus surface topographical parameters in liquid droplet erosion tests. Materials Performance and Characterization 6(2), MPC20160085. [6] O'Carroll, A., Hardiman, M., Tobin, E.F., Young, T.M., 2018. Correlation of the rain erosion performance of polymers to mechanical and surface properties measured using nanoindentation. Wear 412-413, 38-48. [7] Lopatnikov, S.L., Gillespie, J.W., Morand, C., Lumpkin, R., Dignam, J., 2012. The new test method for high velocity water jet impact. Experimental Mechanics 52(9), 1475-1481.