Pultrusion in Wind - STRUCTeam Ltd€¦ · Why Pultrusion? Industry Perspective ¤ Historically,...

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Pultrusion for Wind Blade SparcapsA n A s s e s s m e n t o f B u s i n e s s C a s e s a n d C h a l l e n ge s

14th World Pultrusion Conference

1-2 March 2018, Vienna, Austria

Dr. Rakesh Raj

Dr. Yves Didier


S T R U C Te a m I n t ro d u c t i o n

150+ completed projects

One of the leading independent composite consultancy

Cross-sector experience and great flexibility


I n t ro d u c t i o n

Business cases for wind energy rotor blades design are heavily affected by cost of chosen manufacturing technology¤ Structural composites = prepreg and/or infusion – dominant technologies

(established and developed in other markets).

OEMs continuously looking for cost effective and robust technologies. ¤ So blade design and associated manufacturing processes must deliver an

overall package for low cost, high quality and high production volumes, scalable anywhere in the world.

PULLWIND


W hy P u l t r u s i o n ?

Industry Perspective¤ Historically, Pultrusion introduced in wind energy in 2010

• Only limited to carbon. No glass fibres-based pultrusion!

• Driven by cost and product robustness requirements

• Used in the spar cap region of the blade

¤ OEMs are actively seeking their own pultrusion solutions. But without adequate supply chain positioning and relevant expertise, this is challenging.

• Expertise required in Design, Materials technology and Manufacturing

• Supply chain knowledge required for Equipment, Resin and Fibres



Design consideration¤ Pultrusion offer benefits on FVF and therefore Specific Stiffness

Designing with pultrusion is difficult

Benefits are easily identifiable in the design

Supply Chain is complex for very high volumes

STL785C – STRUCTeam 80m Blade design deploying carbon sparcaps



Product Robustness

¤ Cost of Poor Quality

• Sparcap is structurally critical!

• Known fatigue failure in large blades due to sparcaps wrinkles

• NCR/ factory downtime costs for wrinkle repairs (12% capacity)

• Scrap rate for blades affected by wrinkles is 1-3%

• Pultrusions = level of ‘guaranteed’ quality



Cost Implications¤ Pultruded solutions offer lower overall blade cost (vs. infusion)

¤ Material Cost

• GRP and CFRP both show potential EUR/kg savings

• Pultrusion use lower cost resin systems

• Sparcaps are approx. 30% of total blade mass, so large potential material volume

¤ CAPEX

• Pultusion tooling fairly basic

• Lower workshop space costs

¤ OPEX

• Suited to automated processes

• Shorter blade manufacturing cycle times

Blade masses (kg)

Rest of the bladeSparcaps


O E M s ’ U n m e t N e e d s

Current Spar Cap Technology

• 90% infusion-based/ 5% prepreg-based (Carbon)/ 5% pultrusion-based (Carbon)

• CF Pultruded spar cap pioneered and patented

Unmet Needs

• Epoxy solution for GF / CF pultrusion

• Enhanced fiber impregnation and easy

processing at pultrusion speed > 1 m/min

• Solid supply chain for pultruded part

• Technology freedom to Practice

• Ready to use integrated solution

OEMs need a solution¤ Robust ‘off-the shelf’ pultrusion

product

• Specific properties, pricing, supply chain security, DNV-GL

¤ Tailored blade designs

• Demonstrable performance gains

• Certifiable designs

PULLWIND AS A SOLUTION


C o n c e p t P re s e n t a t i o n - P U L LW I N D

For a typical 80 m blade

• 5-15% Lower cost blade

• 15% CAPEX reduction

• 20% Man Hour reduction

• Lower defect rate

Spar cap

Root section Main mold finishing

Blade manufacturer

Spar capModules supplier

Root section Main mold finishing

Blade manufacturer

Today

Tomorrow

Blade Fabrication process

BENEFITS FOR BLADE

MANUFACTURER


B u s i n e s s c a s e - S T L B l a d e Po r t fo l i o

Blade Name Unit STL50 STL50c STL565 STL635 STL635-2 STL690c STL800 STL785c STL820cBlade Length [m] 50.0 50.0 56.5 63.5 63.5 69.0 78.5 78.5 82.0Rated Power [MW] 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.3 3.3 3.0 6.0 6.0 5.0Wind Class [IEC] IIIB IIIB S S IIIA IIIA IIA IIA IIIBAverage Wind Speed [m/s] 7.5 7.5 7 9 7.5 7.5 8.5 8.5 7.5PCD [mm] 2110 2110 2110 2600 2600 3000 4100 4100 3600Root Connection Solution T-Bolt T-Bolt T-Bolt T-Bolt T-Bolt T-Bolt Insert Insert InsertRoot Connection 60xM36 60xM36 64xM36 74xM36 64xM39 82xM36 140xM36 140xM36 82xM36

96xM42 96xM42Pre-bend [m] 1 1.5 2 2 2 2 2 2 3Max Chord Length [m] 3.63 3.63 3.55 4.16 4.00 4.58 5.36 5.10 5.30Process Infusion Infusion Infusion Infusion Infusion Prepreg Infusion Prepreg PrepregSparcap MaterialMaterial

Glass/Epoxy

Carbon/Epoxy

Glass/Epoxy

Glass/Epoxy

Glass/Epoxy

Carbon/Epoxy

Glass/Epoxy

Carbon/Epoxy

Carbon/Epoxy

Core PVC PVC PVC PVC PVC PVC PVC PVC PVCNominal Rotational Speed [rpm] 15 15 12 12.5 12.5 11.1 12 12 11.34Cut-in Wind Speed [m/s] 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3Cut-out Wind Speed [m/s] 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25Center of Gravity [m] 14.8 12.2 15.9 20.11 22.77 16.35 27.35 23.27 23.65Weight (excl. root connection) [kg] 9100 7200 11030 21150 17100 18390 33600 23870 225601st Flapwise Freqruency [Hz] 0.67 0.86 0.547 0.442 0.427 0.652 0.387 0.492 0.5311st Edgewise Frequency [Hz] 0.97 1.272 0.878 0.914 0.693 0.989 0.703 0.806 0.823


B l a d e Te c h n o l o g y O p t i o n s

Core Choice

Spar Cap Process/Form

Primary Material Choice

STL800/STL785c Blade Design Material Options

Glass

Infusion

PVC C70 PVC+Balsa PET T92 PET T10

PrePreg Pultrusion

Carbon

PrePreg Pultrusion

STL Detailed Cost Model 80m Blade¤ Material Costs

¤ Labour Costs

¤ CAPEX (Tooling)

¤ Cycle Time


B l a d e We i g h t

42%47%

35%21% 18%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

TM+ Glass ECT-Glass TM+ Glass SM Carbon SM Carbon

Infusion Pultrusion Prepreg Pultrusion

Blade Weight

Shell + SW Sparcap Root

100%

107%

79%

100%

80%



Sparcap Weight


C A P E X & O P E X

100%

93%

91%

100%

89%



CAPEX

100%

72% 70%

100%

72%



OPEX


C yc l e T i m e

100%

95%

92%

100%

97%



Cycle Time Reduction

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%


Infusion Pultrusion Infusion Pultrusion

Tack Time

Post cure

Bonding

Lightning fittings

Prefeb to Shell

Demoulding

Curing

Bagging & Infusion

Lay up

Tool preparation


B l a d e To t a l C o st

100%

98%

94%

100%

91%91%

88%88%



Total Blade Cost

Total Blade Costs - Europe with European Pultrusions Total Blade Costs - Europe with Asia Pultrusions


O E M C h a l l e n ge s - a d o p t p u l t r u s i o n

Integration into Blade design

Blade manufacturing

process development

Pultruded product process

development

Resin formulation

Fiber type and grade selection

Pultruded section

definition

Blade designer Resin supplier Blade Manufacturer Pultruder Fiber supplier


P U L LW I N D – C o n s o r t i u m O rga n i s a t i o nB

lad

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esig

nSu

pp

ort

–ST

L &

DN

V-G

LB

lade

Man

ufactu

ring P

rocess

Develo

pm

ent -

STL

Pultruded Product Development - STL

Pultruded Section

Definition

Resin Formulation

Pultrusion Production

Process

Fibre Type and Grade

Carbon – on demand

Integration into Blade Technology - STL


C o n c l u s i o n

Pullwind Business case:¤ Overall cost savings achievable for all Business Cases with pultruded sparcaps

• Between 9% and 12% for 80m Blades

• Most benefitial case is for a blade manufactured in Europe with pultrusionsshipped from low labour cost country (i.e. China)

¤ Pultruded sparcap designs:

• Allow for high reduction in OPEX (labour costs - 15 - 30%)

• Allow for reduction in CAPEX

→ 10% CAPEX reduction for 80m blade

→ No need for prepreg cutting machine, consolidation table and cold storage

• Allow for overall Blade weight reduction (up to 3 - 7%)

Pullwind as a Solution¤ Established pultruded product – Fulfil DNV-GL requirement for blade

¤ STL have design and manufacturing support to help adopt pultrusion in retrofit existing blade and or new generation blade designs

¤ Flexibility of supply chain


C o n t a c t :

Julien Sellier– Managing Director

E-mail: [email protected]

www.structeam-ltd.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.structeam-ltd.com/

Pultrusion in Wind - STRUCTeam Ltd€¦ · Why Pultrusion? Industry Perspective ¤ Historically,...

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