INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.

271-277 APRIL 2018 / 271

REGULAR PAPER DOI: 10.1007/s40684-018-0028-3

ISSN 2288-6206 (Print) / 2198-0810 (Online)

Fabrication and Performance of Segmented Thermoplastic

Composite Wind Turbine Blades

Juan Garate1, Stephen A. Solovitz2, and Dave Kim2,#

1 Vestas Argentina S.A., 1210 Maipu Street, Buenos Aires, C1006ACT, Argentina
2 School of Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, 98686, USA
# Corresponding Author/ Email: kimd@wsu.edu, TEL: +1-360-546-9081

KEYWORDS: Wind blade manufacturing, Thermoplastic composites, Vacuum assisted thermoforming

Large-scale wind turbine blades exceed 50 m in length, and they are currently fashioned as single pieces. Along with the significant
challenge of fabricating these blades, there is also an issue of transporting them to field sites, which can account for a substantial
portion of the installation cost. Further, typical blades are produced from thermoset composite materials, which cannot be reused at
the end of the turbine lifetime. Therefore, a new manufacturing process is developed, forming the blades in smaller segments that can
be joined after transportation to the field. The process uses vacuum-assisted thermoforming of thermoplastic composites, which can
be recycled after use. Six turbine blades were fabricated from two separate segments composed of two elements each, and they were
joined using fusion welding and adhesives. A set of three blades was tested at a small-scale wind farm, producing power outputs on
the order of 20 W at low wind speeds, comparable to an existing commercial turbine.

Manuscript received: August 31, 2016 / Revised: June 26, 2017 / Accepted: September 28, 2017

4,5
rotors. This last solution is based on the simple fact that the wind
NOMENCLATURE power available is proportional to the turbine swept area. Thus, blade
length has been increasing rapidly, with state-of-the-art rotors more
CLmax = The maximum lift coefficient 6,7
than doubling in diameter within a decade. Today, a large scale wind
α = The angle of attack turbine can reach 100 m in diameter, capable of generating 2 MW. 8

c = The chord length Because the blades and support tower account for almost 50% of the
θp = The pitch angle turbine cost, there is a corresponding economic impact. Thus, there 9,10

U = The blade velocity is a clear financial need for efficient blade design.
r = The radius Perhaps surprisingly, a major factor for large turbine costs is
P = The power transportation. Blades are typically fabricated far from their installation
Pw = The wind power sites, which are usually remote from cities and industrial areas. Larger
V = The local wind speed blades are difficult to transport, requiring special vehicles and cranes to
ρ = The density move and assemble them. According to the National Renewable
Cp = The power coefficient Energy Laboratory (NREL), transportation costs account for more than
11
90% of the installation for typical 2 MW turbines, which is more than
$1 million. Hence, there is also a need to reduce these particular costs
1. Introduction as blade sizes increase.
Larger turbine blades lead to a second, related issue — recyclability
Over the past few decades, wind energy production has increased of materials. Based on the need for low weight and high strength, the
8
dramatically, now accounting for more than 5% of global electricity most appealing materials are either wood or composites. Wood is
1-3
production. The increase has been addressed in a number of manners, attractive for small wind turbines due to its low density, but it does not
including additional turbines, more efficient designs, and larger meet the requirement of high stiffness for large blades. For bigger

© KSPE and Springer 2018

 272 / APRIL 2018 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 5, No. 2
applications, composites are selected, with both thermoset and
thermoplastic resins capable of producing similar parts. The main
difference between these resins is the mechanism that bonds the
material. Thermosets experience an irreversible mechanism during the
curing process, with crosslinks between their polymer chains.
However, thermoplastic resins are only melted. Currently, thermosets
8,12
are more common in wind turbine production, partly due to previous
manufacturing experience with similar applications. Unfortunately,
thermosets cannot be reused, and they typically must be incinerated or
13
sent to a landfill at the end of their lifetime. Thermoplastics may be
recycled, so they could provide an additional renewable feature to this
14
energy technology.
Some of these aspects have been considered in industrial turbine
production. Very recently, Blade Dynamics introduced a 2 MW turbine
15
using partitioned blades of 49-m length. Each blade is manufactured
in two sections and assembled locally, reducing transportation costs. In
addition, this model is fabricated using carbon fiber, so its weight is
less than for traditional counterparts. This technology could allow the
fabrication of larger and lighter blades. Thermoplastics have been
16
considered for turbine blades since the 1980s, but they are not
typically used due to the need for higher processing temperatures.
Beyond this, several potential processes for thermoplastics have been
considered by turbine manufacturers, including prepreg technology by
17 18
Vestas, vacuum infusion by LM Glassfiber, and vacuum assisted
17
molding by TPI Composites.
Therefore, we propose to develop a novel, segmented wind turbine
blade. By using multiple segments for a single blade, the overall
transportation costs should be reduced, since each segment will be
easier to move. In addition, we will fashion each segment using
thermoplastic composites, which should permit recycling of the blades
at the end of their lifetime.
Here, we discuss the design and fabrication of the segmented
turbine blade. First, we discuss the aerodynamic design of the blade,
which is based on the idealized Betz limit. Second, we examine the
material selection and fabrication method, using vacuum assisted
thermoforming with glass-fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites.
Third, we consider field test performance of these segmented blades,
measuring their output performance using a series of small-scale wind
turbines. Finally, these results are discussed further in the context of
larger-scale systems.
2. Blade Design
The blades are designed to fit into an existing commercial wind
TM
turbine, a 600 W unit from Sunforce . This is a three-blade
horizontal-axis design composed of fiberglass material, with a rotor
diameter of 1.31 m. According to its manufacturers, the cut-in and rated
19
speeds of the turbine are 2.0 and 12.5 m/s, respectively. Five of these
turbines are installed on the Washington State University Vancouver
campus, and one of these turbines is modified to use the new
segmented design. Thus, there is an opportunity to directly compare the
performance of a new segmented design to an existing system.
Each blade uses a two-dimensional airfoil profile, whose chord
length and twist angle are varied along its span. Because the blade
Fig. 1 MH102 airfoil profile selected for blade design, with x- and y-
coordinates normalized by the chord length, c
torque is governed by the airfoil lift, the profile is selected to have good
aerodynamic characteristics. Specifically, the design should have a high
lift-to-drag ratio (L/D) at a modest angle of attack (α). In addition, it
should have good stall characteristics, with lift coefficients remaining
significant at angles beyond the maximum lift coefficient (CLmax). In
selecting a design airfoil, a series of 11 different candidates were
considered, including 5 aerospace-focused NACA (the National
20
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) designs and 6 wind turbine-
21
focused options.
22
The airfoil performance was analyzed using XFOIL, an openly-
available software tool used for aerodynamic study. This code is based
on panel methods, dividing the airfoil contour into small sections and
applying appropriate velocity boundary conditions to determine
pressures and shear stress. Boundary layer models account for drag in
viscous situations. The surface stresses are then integrated to determine
the lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficients at various angles of
attack. For each of the candidate airfoils, these load coefficients were
o o
evaluated over a range of angles of attack from 0 to 20 , which
includes their stall point. A typical Reynolds number of 500,000 was
used, representing the expected turbulent flow conditions.
Based on these analyses, the best performance was observed for the
23
NACA 6421 airfoil and the MH102 airfoil. The NACA 6421 had a
higher maximum lift coefficient (1.77 vs. 1.51), while the MH102 had
a higher maximum lift-to-drag ratio (97 vs. 83). For peak power output,
high lift-to-drag is preferred, since the airfoil chord can be resized to
match the preferred torque. The MH102 airfoil had a lower minimum
drag coefficient (by 33%) and a smaller minimum pitching moment
coefficient (by more than 50%). Further, NACA airfoils are more
sensitive to leading edge roughness changes, which can be detrimental
in field tests in outdoor environments. Hence, the MH102 airfoil was
selected for the blade design, with its profile shown in Fig. 1. Here, the
coordinates are normalized by the blade chord length, c.
Next, a three-dimensional blade shape was generated, using the
24
idealized Betz limit as the target. For any wind turbine design, the
peak power coefficient is 16/27 of the driving wind power, as
determined by Betz via mass, momentum, and energy conservation.
Although this is an idealization, the blade profile can be selected to
match this preferred condition, albeit with the understanding that the
actual performance will be reduced by drag, edge effects, and system
losses. Based on this optimized analysis, the local chord length, c, and
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 5, No. 2
Fig. 2 CAD models of the full blade
Fig. 3 CAD model depicting the four individual blade elements used
in the final design. The tip is at left, while the root is at right
pitch angle, θp, must vary with radial position because the blade
velocity, U, increases with radius, r. Typically, these decrease with
radius, with c ~ 1/r and θp ~ tan (1/r), with the magnitudes depending
-1
on the number of blades, rotation rate, local lift coefficient, and total
blade radius.
For this MH102-based design, a three-blade design was used, and
the blade length was defined as 600 mm to fit within the existing
turbine structure. The rotation rate was selected as the optimal for a
three-blade design, although the actual performance depends on the
current wind speed. The idealized Betz model was then used to
calculate the chord and pitch angle. However, because these results
lead to singularities near the hub, the idealized profile was fit to a linear
profile, maintaining finite dimensions at all radii. The resulting profile
o
had a chord length of 19.25 mm and a pitch angle of -8.5 at the tip.
Nearer the hub, at 10% of the blade radius, the corresponding chord
o
length and pitch angle were 123 mm and 21.6 .
APRIL 2018 / 273
This structure was modeled using commercial CAD software from
TM
Solidworks . A total of ten construction planes were used to generate
the 3-D model, with the airfoil shape, chord, and pitch angles selected
based on the previous analysis. Fig. 2(a) shows an image of this CAD
model. The final body was created by via a loft of these ten profiles,
providing volume to the blade. The root geometry was designed to
match the existing turbine hub connection. This requires a taper back
to a plane with zero pitch angle, as shown in Fig. 2(b).
Finally, this blade is divided into finite span lengths, as needed for
examination of segmented turbine performance. For this initial study,
only two spanwise sections are used, referred to as the “root” and “tip”
sections. The two segments are divided at the mid-span location. In
addition, the blade is also divided along the chord line into “top” and
“bottom” sections. Fig. 3 displays these four separate elements. Each of
these four sections will be fabricated individually, and then they will be
joined together to produce a final turbine blade for testing.
3. Turbine Manufacturing
The blades were fabricated using glass fiber-reinforced polymer
composites, specifically selecting thermoplastic materials. These
materials have suitable stiffness and low density for the application,
8
approximately 2 GPa and 1 g/cc, respectively. Compared to traditional
25
thermosets, thermoplastics can have higher compression strength,
which may be beneficial under the variable loading for the turbine. In
addition, thermoplastics have relatively faster processing cycles, and
their work environments are typically cleaner. However, they also
require higher processing temperatures, so manufacturers may need to
adapt.
For the segmented turbine blades, the thermoplastic composite
material used a polypropylene resin with 65% E-glass fibers. The
o o o
quasi-isotropic composite sheet with [0 /± 45 /90 ] came in
approximately 1.676 mm thickness with 61.0 cm by 61.0 cm area. All
thermoplastic composite sheets (Product ID: IE-6536) were provided
by Polystrand, Englewood, CO, USA. The matrix material or
polypropylene copolymer had a range of melting points, with its peak
o
at 170 C, while its average density was 0.94 g/cc. The glass fibers had
o
significantly higher melting points and average density, at 800 C and
2.55 g/cc, respectively.
The blade structure was fabricated using vacuum-assisted
thermoforming, an adaptation of more typical thermoforming. 8
Typically, the composite is heated beyond its melting point, and then it
is formed to the desired shape using pressure over a mold. In the
vacuum-assisted method, only one half of the mold is used, while a
vacuum is applied to pull the material over the remainder of the mold.
This requires less tooling in the production process, though it can require
rework after production due to surface quality. In addition, the materials
must be sealed within a vacuum bag during processing. Previously, this
method has more commonly been used with thermoset composites.
Following the heating and vacuum steps, the entire structure is cooled to
room temperature. For thermoplastics, this cooling rate must be
controlled to avoid residual stresses in the finished part.
Each of the four blade elements shown in Fig. 3 required an
individual mold. The four molds were fabricated from 6061 aluminum
 274 / APRIL 2018 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 5, No. 2

Fig. 4 Schematic of the vacuum-assisted thermoforming process set-

up. The composite sheets are placed atop an inverse mold
within a vacuum bag. The bag is heated by a hot plate, located
beneath the mold. A vacuum is applied using a vacuum pump

alloy using a CNC milling machine. The mold base dimensions were
40 cm by 15 cm by 2 cm, while the structure extended approximately
10 cm up from this surface. The inverse mold shape had a varying
width and thickness over its surface, which resulted in the desired
chord and thickness distribution along the blade span.
The thermoplastic composite sheets were cut to the individual blade
element geometries and arranged in stacks of three sheets, producing
o o o
[0 /± 45 /90 ] with an approximately 5.0-mm thick total. The bottom
3

layer was placed atop the mold, with a release agent placed in between
to avoid sticking to the mold. In addition, a breather ply was added above
the top layer to help even the vacuum pressure and avoid wrinkling. The
entire structure was placed inside a vacuum bag, where it will be placed
atop a hot plate for heating, as seen schematically in Fig. 4.
o
The hot plate temperature is set to 240 C, which makes the
o
aluminum mold surface temperature approximately 200 C above the
resin melting point. The hot plate is allowed to reach its steady state
before the vacuum bag is put in place. Once the composite and mold
are in position, a vacuum pump applies an 85 kPa vacuum pressure
inside the bag. The system is allowed to heat until the resin begins to
melt, approximately 75 minutes after the beginning of the process.
After a few seconds, the hot plate is deactivated, and the entire system
is allowed to cool gradually. An industrial fan is used to increase the
cooling rate, though it still takes more than 60 minutes to return to
room temperature. The final part has smooth upper and lower surfaces,
matching the mold shape well, as seen in Fig. 5(a). The airfoil shape
is evident at the near end of the part, and the entire structure is twisted
to match the desired pitch angles.
Following production of each of the four individual blade surfaces,
they were joined together into a single turbine blade. This process
required three steps. First, the top and bottom surfaces were attached
together using fusion welding, resulting in root and tip segments. For
this step, a heat gun at a controlled heat flux was directed at both the
leading and trailing edges, which bonded these interfaces together. To
Fig. 5 Images of an element, the root and tip segments of a blade, and
six turbine blades fabricated
maintain contact between the top and bottom elements, a silicone seam
roller added pressure to the surfaces, providing a consistent interface at
the edges. At the end of this step, the structure consisted of two hollow
segments: one for the root, and one for the tip.
Second, the hollow blade segments were filled with a sprayed
polyurethane foam. This foam filled internal cavities and cracks,
providing lightweight interior structure. The foam did not significantly
alter the mass of the blade, reducing concerns about undue dynamic
stresses during turbine operation. Following this step, the two segments
were ready to be joined into a single blade. Fig. 5(b) shows an image
of root and tip segments after fusing and foam-infusion.
Third, the filled root and tip segments were linked using an epoxy
adhesive. To aid in linking the two segments, the innermost composite
layers were extended several centimeters, providing overlapping
materials between each element. The extensions formed a male-female
joint, which was located within the interior of the root segment. Epoxy
was applied at this joint, and the structured was immobilized until the
epoxy set. At the completion of this step, the four individual surfaces
were linked into a single blade. However, the surface quality was
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 5, No. 2
Fig. 6 Comparison of measured and design chord length for the
finished blades
Fig. 7 Comparison of measured and design pitch angle for the
finished blades
somewhat inconsistent due to combination of methods used in the
production process.
At this stage, the exterior of the blade was post-processed to
produce a clean blade surface. Any small imperfections in the surface
were removed using a filler resin and sandpaper ranging from 600 to
1000 grit. Once the surface quality was smooth, it was polished with a
water-based compound to remove any scratches from the sandpaper.
Finally, the surfaces were painted, resulting in the finished blade. Fig.
5(c) shows the set of six completed blades.
Following the fabrication, the six blades were evaluated using a
coordinate measuring machine (CMM), specifically focusing on the
chord and pitch angle variation. The measurements were determined
using the leading and trailing edges of the airfoil profile at several
radial locations, corresponding to the first eight planes shown in Fig.
2(a). Using these references, the CMM provided the real chord length
and the real pitch angle for each blade. Figs. 6 and 7 depict these two
geometric parameters, respectively, along with comparisons to the
original design.
APRIL 2018 / 275
Fig. 8 Comparison of output power at various wind speeds for the
segmented turbine and an existing commercial turbine
Over much of the blade, the chord lengths compare favorably with
the design, deviating by less than 5 mm. At a midspan location at a
radius, r, of 240 mm, this is approximately 4.5% of the chord. Towards
the tip, the differences in chord length increase, reaching an average of
11.6 mm at r = 480 mm. However, all six blades had similar behavior
to within ± 4 mm, with chords all slightly above the design level.
Similarly, the pitch angle deviations are also small over the majority of
o
the blade, typically within 3 of the design. This deviation corresponds
to 11% of the total twist from root to tip. This difference is larger near
o
the tip, especially for blades #4 and 6, which deviate by more than 8 .
o
The other four blades still are within 3 of the design, and they agree
o
to within ± 1.5 . As with the chord, the pitch angle is slightly higher
than design.
These differences are likely due to the additional thickness from the
joining process. Because the tip and the root were joined by hand, this
step was susceptible to deviation, most notably with the pitch angle.
Also, the added composite material affected the chord length, though
not as significantly. Beyond this, all six blades were smaller at the tip
by design, so any excess material would exaggerate the relative
deviation there. Even so, with the exception of blades #4 and 6, there
was a consistent shape which compared favorably to the design.
Because of the consistency, the turbine blades could balance well in the
field.
4. Field Testing
A set of three finished blades were selected in order to fit one of the
five existing turbines in the Washington State University Vancouver
wind farm. This is a location on the east end of the campus, where five
commercial 600W turbines are mounted atop 10-m poles. These
turbines produce three-phase power to charge 12V batteries attached at
the base to the poles. In the experiments, the new, segmented turbine
was tested simultaneously with an existing commercial turbine.
In each test, the current and voltage were measured for each turbine
using multimeters, and these variables were used to calculate the
 276 / APRIL 2018 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 5, No. 2
power, P. Concurrently, the local wind speed, V, was measured using a
handheld anemometer located at the top of the pole. A total of 358 test
samples were acquired for each turbine over four hours of testing on
four separate days in July 2015. The output power values were
clustered according to the wind speed, with bins of 1 m/s width used.
The average power output for each bin is presented in Fig. 8.
During the testing, wind speeds were relatively low, and thus most
of the data was acquired below 4 m/s. At this condition, both the
segmented and existing commercial turbines produced similar power
levels, on the order of 10 W or less. The total wind power available at
these speeds, Pw, is also relatively small, so this output is still
significant. For a wind turbine of swept area, A, driven by wind of
speed, V, and density, ρ, the driving wind power is 1/2ρAV3. For the
segmented turbine at 3 m/s, the available power is only 18 W. When
nondimensionalizing using a power coefficient, Cp = P/Pw, this is a
value of 0.34. Although this is below the Betz limit of 0.59, even the
best-performing horizontal-axis wind turbines only reach
26
approximately 0.45. Smaller turbines also have power coefficients on
the order of only 0.2, below the levels seen here. At higher wind speed,
the commercial turbine generated approximately 6 W more power,
although the general trend was increasing for both turbines. Note that
there is no bin displayed at 5 m/s, as there were less than ten values
acquired at this condition, leading to high uncertainty in those results.
Overall, both turbines behave in a similar fashion, although further
experiments at larger wind speeds would be preferred to better quantify
the performance. Although the segmented turbine generally had lower
output than the commercial turbine, this is hardly surprising since the
commercial design was a mass-produced commodity device. In
addition, there were some deviations in the geometry in this initial
implementation, as seen in Figs. 6 and 7. As the segmented fabrication
process improves, the performance would be expected to at least match
the commercial design.
5. Conclusion
To meet the challenges of fabricating and transporting large wind
turbine blades, a new process was developed that fashions the blades
from several smaller segments. The process used vacuum-assisted
thermoforming of thermoplastic composites, which are recyclable at
the end of the turbine lifetime. Six blades were formed from four
elements each, which were joined together using fusion welding and
adhesives. When compared to the original design, the chord lengths
o
and pitch angles matched to within 5 mm and 3 over the root and
midspan sections. These correspond to 4.5% and 11% differences from
the design at midspan. There was greater deviation from the design
near the tip, though the six blades had consistent dimensions. The
difference was primarily due to the hand fabrication process, so
dimensional quality can likely be improved with more manufacturing
experience.
Through field tests, the turbine performance was compared to an
existing commercial turbine, and its produced similar power at low
speed. Measured power coefficients of 0.34 were below the Betz limit,
but comparable to values seen with smaller commercial turbines. At
higher wind speed, the output power was lower than the commercial
turbine, though this is unsurprising since the commercial turbine was a
commodity product. As a demonstration, the field tests showed that the
segmented turbine could produce output power of similar magnitudes.
In the future, it may be possible to reduce transportation costs for
turbines by scaling this method up to larger sizes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was partly supported by a WSU Vancouver Research
Mini-grant. The authors would like to thank Polystrand for their
donation of composite materials for this project.
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