TY - JOUR
T1 - The Springer Model for Lifetime Prediction of Wind Turbine Blade Leading Edge Protection Systems
T2 - A Review and Sensitivity Study
AU - Hoksbergen, Nick
AU - Akkerman, Remko
AU - Baran, Ismet
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was financed by TKI-Wind op Zee Topsector Energy subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands with reference number TEWZ118008.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - The wind energy sector is growing rapidly. Wind turbines are increasing in size, leading to higher tip velocities. The leading edges of the blades interact with rain droplets, causing erosion damage over time. In order to mitigate the erosion, coating materials are required to protect the blades. To predict the fatigue lifetime of coated substrates, the Springer model is often used. The current work summarizes the research performed using this model in the wind energy sector and studies the sensitivity of the model to its input parameters. It is shown that the Springer model highly depends on the Poisson ratio, the strength values of the coating and the empirically fitted a2 constant. The assumptions made in the Springer model are not physically representative, and we reasoned that more modern methods are required to accurately predict coating lifetimes. The proposed framework is split into three parts—(1) a contact pressure model, (2) a coating stress model and (3) a fatigue strength model—which overall is sufficient to capture the underlying physics during rain erosion of wind turbine blades. Possible improvements to each of the individual aspects of the framework are proposed.
AB - The wind energy sector is growing rapidly. Wind turbines are increasing in size, leading to higher tip velocities. The leading edges of the blades interact with rain droplets, causing erosion damage over time. In order to mitigate the erosion, coating materials are required to protect the blades. To predict the fatigue lifetime of coated substrates, the Springer model is often used. The current work summarizes the research performed using this model in the wind energy sector and studies the sensitivity of the model to its input parameters. It is shown that the Springer model highly depends on the Poisson ratio, the strength values of the coating and the empirically fitted a2 constant. The assumptions made in the Springer model are not physically representative, and we reasoned that more modern methods are required to accurately predict coating lifetimes. The proposed framework is split into three parts—(1) a contact pressure model, (2) a coating stress model and (3) a fatigue strength model—which overall is sufficient to capture the underlying physics during rain erosion of wind turbine blades. Possible improvements to each of the individual aspects of the framework are proposed.
KW - UT-Gold-D
U2 - 10.3390/ma15031170
DO - 10.3390/ma15031170
M3 - Article
SN - 1996-1944
VL - 15
JO - Materials
JF - Materials
IS - 3
M1 - 1170
ER -