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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.
Paul Murdy; Jack Dolson; David Miller; Scott Hughes; Ryan Beach. Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems. Applied Sciences 2021, 11, 1336 .
AMA StylePaul Murdy, Jack Dolson, David Miller, Scott Hughes, Ryan Beach. Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems. Applied Sciences. 2021; 11 (3):1336.
Chicago/Turabian StylePaul Murdy; Jack Dolson; David Miller; Scott Hughes; Ryan Beach. 2021. "Leveraging the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Advanced Hybrid Composite Structures for Marine Energy Systems." Applied Sciences 11, no. 3: 1336.
Wind turbine blades are typically manufactured from a small number of components which are bonded together with an adhesive. Over the life span of a wind turbine, the static and fatigue loads in varying environmental conditions can lead to cracking and/or debonding of the adhesive joints, ultimately leading to blade structural collapse. The objective of this work is to investigate fusion joining of wind turbine blades manufactured using thermoplastic resin. Thermoplastic resins for wind turbine blades can reduce cycle times and energy consumption during manufacturing and facilitate end-of-life recycling and on-site manufacturing. Additionally, fusion joining of these materials can replace adhesives, resulting in stronger and more robust blades. This work showed that, compared to typical adhesives used in wind turbine blades, fusion welding resulted in an increase in both the static and fatigue lap-shear strength as compared to bonded thermoplastic composite coupons. This initial coupon-scale research suggests that there is potential for developing fusion welding techniques for full-scale wind turbine blades.
Robynne E. Murray; Jason Roadman; Ryan Beach. Fusion joining of thermoplastic composite wind turbine blades: Lap-shear bond characterization. Renewable Energy 2019, 140, 501 -512.
AMA StyleRobynne E. Murray, Jason Roadman, Ryan Beach. Fusion joining of thermoplastic composite wind turbine blades: Lap-shear bond characterization. Renewable Energy. 2019; 140 ():501-512.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRobynne E. Murray; Jason Roadman; Ryan Beach. 2019. "Fusion joining of thermoplastic composite wind turbine blades: Lap-shear bond characterization." Renewable Energy 140, no. : 501-512.