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Development of a Novel Solution for Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind

Turbine Blades

Chapter · January 2020

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-8331-1_38

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 Development of a novel solution for leading edge erosion
on offshore wind turbine blades

William Finnegan1,2[0000-0001-9121-2567], Tomas Flanagan3 and Jamie Goggins1,2[0000-0001-

7899-0161]

1 Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway,

Ireland
2 MaREI Centre, Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
3 ÉireComposites Teo, An Choill Rua, Inverin, Co. Galway, Ireland

william.finnegan@nuigalway.ie

Abstract. In recent years, wind energy has become the leading source of renew-
able energy as the world strives to remove its reliance on fossil fuels. With the
growing demand for wind energy, wind farms have begun to move offshore and
the size of the average wind turbine has increased (up to 10MW). However, as a
result of these advances, additional challenges are presented – one of the most
significant being leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades. This erosion re-
quires additional maintenance, while lowering a turbine’s annual energy produc-
tion by up to 25%, which needs to be eliminated, or significantly reduced, if off-
shore wind energy is to become competitive within global energy markets. To
this end, in this paper, the methodology proposed in LEAPWind, a new collabo-
rative European research project, which aims to prevent blade leading-edge ero-
sion by employing advanced composite materials and innovative manufacturing
processes has been presented. An advanced thermoplastic-epoxy composite ma-
terial is used to manufacture a leading edge component for a wind turbine blade.
The critical technical stages, including material identification and characterisa-
tion, component design and manufacture have been discussed. Additionally, the
details relating to de-risking of the novel technologies through mechanical and
rain erosion testing, and full-scale operational trials on a 2.1MW wind turbine,
located in an onshore wind farm in Portugal, has been included. The results of
this study, will not only have social and economic benefits, but also a significant
environmental impact as it will allow for the manufacture of a more sustainable
wind turbine blade.

Keywords: Advanced Materials, Leading Edge Erosion, Structural Integrity,

Wind Energy

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
2

1 Introduction

As the world moves to a more sustainable way of living, the leading source of renewa-
ble energy is wind energy, where, by 2020, the global capacity is expected to nearly
double to 650.8GW [1]. As the wind energy industry grows, increasingly more wind
farms are being developed offshore due to favourable social and environmental factors
compared to onshore. With this development in the sector, wind turbine blades are now
become much larger with the increased resource and the need for fewer turbines, where
the average capacity of wind turbines installed in European waters has doubled, from
2MW in 2000 to 4MW in 2014 and SEIMENS Gamesa announced their 10MW (193
diameter wind turbine) this year [2].
However, with larger turbines comes additional challenges - as blade tip speeds ap-
proach 500km/hr, erosion of the leading-edge of the wind turbine blade begins to occur
very early (within 5 years) of the blades design life (typically 20-25 years). This be-
comes an even more paramount issue for offshore wind as access to turbines is limited
and the cost of maintenance increases ten-fold compared to onshore wind turbine
blades. Additionally, this erosion has a knock on effect on the performance of the wind
turbine as it can reduce the annual energy production of a wind turbine by between 2%
and 25% [3].
A comprehensive review of the existing methods for addressing leading edge erosion
of wind turbine blades was compiled in 2013 by Keegan at al. [4]. Currently, a number
of leading edge protection methods that are designed to be applied to the completed
wind turbine blade are available, which include tapes, paints and coatings [5]. Initially,
the protective coatings were made from epoxy or polyester but over time, these rigid
coatings were found to be inadequate and more ductile materials, such as polypropylene
and polyurethane, were necessary. In recent years, manufacturers have moved towards
multi-layered solutions, which can be designed to optimise performance and as a means
of assessing the durability of the protection system. In general, leading edge protection
methods can be divided into two categories: in-mould and post-mould solutions [4,6].
The in-mould solutions are applied directly to the matrix substrate, using painting or
spraying. These coating are typically rigid, brittle and have a high modulus, compared
to the more flexible coatings, such as polyurethane [4], that are used for the post-mould
solutions. The post-mould protective systems are typically multi-layer systems with the
inclusion of filler and primer layers between the laminate substrate and surface coating.
These methods provide additional protection from erosion during operation but usually
require replace during the design life of the blade and this replacement becomes more
regular in larger wind turbine blades. In addition, there are a number of products de-
signed for maintenance of eroded wind turbine blade leading edge. These are usually
in the form of spray foams or fillers, which are costly to apply even for onshore wind
turbines.

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
 3

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of these protective solutions, various testing

methods and apparatus have been developed to simulate rain erosion. These can be
classified into wheel and jet [7,8], whirling arm [9-11], water jet [12,13] and ballistic
[14] testing apparatuses. The results showed that the whirling arm style rig is able to
rank the tested materials in the same order as those that had been attached to an aircraft
and flown is real-world conditions [15], which suggests that the whirling arm is the
method that best represents real-life operational conditions.
This paper describes the methodology proposed in LEAPWind, a new collaborative
European research project, which aims to prevent blade leading-edge erosion by em-
ploying advanced composite materials and innovative manufacturing processes. An ad-
vanced thermoplastic-epoxy composite material is used to manufacture a leading edge
component for a wind turbine blade. The material identification and characterisation,
using mechanical and rain erosion testing, along with demonstrator and full-scale com-
ponent design, is described. An overview of the complementary finite element method
model is also included in the paper. The technologies developed in the project will be
demonstrated through operational trials on a 2.1MW wind turbine, located in an on-
shore wind farm in Portugal, which is also discussed.

2 Methodology

2.1 Aim and objectives

The overarching aim of this study is to eliminate leading edge erosion in wind turbine
blades. This will be achieved during the design and manufacturing stages of blade pro-
duction, where maintenance due to leading edge erosion will not be necessary during
operation. Within this study a new leading edge blade component will be designed,
manufactured and tested on a wind turbine to protect the wind blade from erosion,
which will boost productivity, and increase blade life, while reducing maintenance
costs.
However, in order to attain this aim, the following specific objectives must be
achieved:
 To design a new leading edge blade component, which will protect the wind
blade from erosion
 To develop a commercial-scale process for manufacturing the leading edge
blade component.
 To de-risk the technology by performing structural (mechanical and rain ero-
sion) testing of a full-scale prototype leading-edge blade component.
 To develop a finite element prediction and analysis model of the new compo-
nent, which can be used for future design and structural health monitoring.

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
4

 To perform full-scale operational tests on an existing wind turbine in Portugal

using advanced sensory structural health monitoring techniques to assess the
performance of the new blade component.

2.2 Methodology overview

In order to achieve the aim and objectives of this study, a systematic project methodol-
ogy of the main technical tasks has been established, which is shown graphically in Fig.
1. The initial tasks in the project will run in parallel in order to arrive at an optimum
component design. Following this, a more linear approach will take place as the novel
wind blade component is manufacture, mechanically tested and de-risked further
through operational trials. These stages are discussed in further detail in Section 3. In
parallel to this stages, commercialisation of the new product and dissemination of pro-
ject finding and outcomes will be performed but these aspects are not discussed in this
paper.

Fig. 1. Overview of the methodological approach employed to develop the new wind blade com-
ponent

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
 5

3 Methods and discussions

3.1 Material characterization

A key aspect of the study is to identify the most suitable material for protecting the
leading edge of a wind turbine blade against erosion. Currently, there are a number of
solutions for protecting against leading edge erosion, including tapes, coatings and
shields. However, the proposed study intends to obtain a solution in the manufacture
stage and eliminate the need for maintenance as a result of leading edge erosion. Based
on the existing solutions, a material with properties of high tensile strength, high duc-
tility and high elongation at break is required and, as a result, the following materials
will be initially investigated:
 Polyurethane
 Polyphenylene sulphide (PPS)
 Polycarbonate
 Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
 Polyamide 69 Nylon
 Polyamide 11
The above list of materials, along with some baseline materials, will be structurally
tested using mechanical (static and fatigue) testing and rain erosion testing, which is
discussed further in the Section 3.2. The thermoplastic material selected will then be
appended to the glass fibre reinforced powder epoxy, which makes up the main struc-
tural elements of the wind blade component. The thermoplastic material will effect a
number of aspects of the design and, therefore, is one of the initial steps within the
study.

3.2 Rain erosion and mechanical testing of materials

The materials detailed in Section 3.1 will be subjected to rain erosion testing in order
to investigate their resistance to erosion in accordance to the testing standard ASTM
G73-10 [16]. The tests will first be performed at the Whirling Arm Rain Erosion Rig
(WARER) facility at University of Limerick (UL), which was developed in 2009 and
has been extensively validated [9-11]. Following this, a set of specimens will be tested
at a jet erosion testing facility to confirm the ranking of the selected materials.
Mechanical static and fatigue testing will be performed on the most promising ma-
terials when appended to glass fibre reinforced powder epoxy in order to investigate
the effect on the mechanical properties of the resultant composite laminate. This static
tensile and fatigue tension-tension testing was carried out in accordance with ASTM
D3039 [17] and ASTM D3479 [18] using a 250kN Zwick test machine with wedge

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
6

grips. Examples of material specimens that have been mechanically and rain erosion
tested are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Material specimens that have been mechanically tested (left) and rain erosion tested (right;
[6])

The results of this testing campaign will form part of the decision process involved
in the selection of the most suitable thermoplastic material, which is discussed in Sec-
tion 3.1.

3.3 Finite element model development

In parallel to the selection of the thermoplastic material that will form the outer costing
of the leading edge component, where the structural part is made up of a glass fibre
reinforced powder epoxy material, a finite element model of the component and mate-
rials will be developed.
The finite element model will be developed using ANSYS WorkBench [19], where
it will combine a number of the ANSYS software packages, mainly DesignModeler,
Composite PrepPost (ACP) and Mechanical. The development of this model will build
on previous previous models for renewable energy systems [20-22]. This will allow for
a complete design of the composite material part, including simulation of mechanical
testing and a response displacement investigation. The model will be of the full-scale
leading-edge blade component and will be used to predict the structural performance
of the component in order to validate the model during in the experimental work per-
formed, subsequently. A schematic of the new wind blade component that will be de-

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
 7

veloped during this study is shown in Fig. 3 using ANSYS DesignModeler. Addition-
ally, the finite element model will also be used to model the blade component element
demonstrators that will be produced and tested during the project. This will allow for
the initial validation of the model and, therefore, improve its performance.
The finite element model will initially be used in the design of the wind blade com-
ponent but it will also be used during the structural health monitoring of the component
will in operation. This will allow the wind turbine operator to predict the performance
and response of the component and feed into the on-site decision making processes.
During the mechanical testing and operational trials within the project, any discrepan-
cies between the model and the physical testing will be investigated and the model will
be updated throughout the project in order to improve its reliability.

Fig. 3. Schematic of the new wind blade component that will be developed during this study,
which has been illustrated using ANSYS DesignModeler

3.4 Leading edge component design and manufacture

The central research element of the study is the design and manufacture of a new lead-
ing edge blade component (a schematic of which is shown in Fig. 3).
The new leading edge blade component will be initially designed based on Suzlan’s
current design for the leading edge of their wind turbine blades. However, it will be
adapted to ensure it has the required strength and stiffness to be incorporated into a
wind turbine blade as a component, which is connected to the shear web of the blade’s
spar. The part will be mainly comprised of structure made from glass fibre reinforced
powder epoxy material with an outer layer of the selected thermoplastic material, which
Cite this paper as:
Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
8

is discussed in Section 3.1. The finite element model, which is discussed in Section 3.3,
will also be used within the design of the new component.
Once the new leading edge blade component is design, manufacturing trials will take
place in order to de-risk the more complicated aspects of the build. Included in this will
be the manufacture and mechanical testing of a representative demonstrator, which will
be used to further de-risk the component design, the manufacture process and the finite
element model. This will ensure that any costly mistakes on the full-scale mould or
other problems will be eliminated prior to the manufacture of the full-scale blade com-
ponent.
The next stage in the production of the full-scale blade component is the manufacture
of the mould tooling that the component will be built on. Firstly, a pattern for this mould
is manufactured using a CAD model of the component outer profile that is inputted into
a computer numerical control (CNC) machine. The accuracy in this CAD model, and
subsequent CNC manufacture of the pattern, is paramount in the production of a high-
performance part. Once the pattern is completed, the mould tooling will be cast on the
pattern and it will be designed to provide the recommended manufacturing process win-
dow (vacuum level, temperature distribution along mould and through laminate thick-
ness, heat-up time and power, dwell time and cooling rates). Testing of the heated
mould tooling will be performed to ensure that it is fit for purpose and reliable for full-
scale, volume production, which ensures that the process can be completed in the future
in as an efficient and environmentally friendly way as possible.
The full-scale blade component will be manufactured using the final blade compo-
nent design and the mould tooling. To this end, rolls of glass-fibre will be impregnated
with a powder epoxy and then kitted (or cut into plies). The outer layers of the compo-
nent will be comprised of the selected thermoplastic material, which is discussed in
Section 3.1. These outer layers will eliminate the risk of leading edge erosion during
operation. The leading edge sub-components will be heated in an oven to 50OC at which
point they solidify but do not cross polymerise. Subsequently, these sub-components
will be assembled together in the full-scale mould and cured to 180OC under vacuum.
Following the cure, the component will be de-moulded, visually inspected and non-
destructive testing will be performed in order to ensure that it is of the highest standard
and there are no defects.

3.5 Leading edge component mechanical testing

Mechanical testing of the new leading edge wind blade component will be performed
in the Large Structures Test Cell at NUI Galway to ensure the component has sufficient
structural integrity, where the facility and blade component testing is shown in Fig. 4.
The wind blade component will be mounted on a steel testing fixtures within the Test
Cell for the duration of the testing. This mechanical (static and fatigue) testing cam-
paign will be performed to the relevant testing standards, DNV-DS-J102 [23] and
Cite this paper as:
Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
 9

IEC61400-23 [24], where actuators will be equally spaced along the length of the blade
component to impose the loading on the component. The test loads applied during the
mechanical testing campaign will be derived from actual loads applied to the wind tur-
bine blades in operation.

Fig. 4. The Large Structures Test Cell at NUI Galway, showing the test cell (left) and a blade
component during a mechanical fatigue test (right)

During the static testing, the blade will be tested to the maximum predicted loads
envisaged during operation, where loads will be applied in incremental steps of 5% of
the maximum predicted operational load. The static testing will be monitored using a
combination of strain gauges, LVDTs and a digital image correlation (DIC) strain
measurement system. The data obtained during the physical test will be post-processed
and will be compared with the results predicted by the finite element model. The key
static testing cases are the flapwise and edgewise bending tests and the test data will
confirm the stiffness distribution, natural frequency and strength of the blade. Follow-
ing this, the fatigue testing will take place, where the blade component prototype will
be tested in tension-tension fatigue loading within an R value of 0.1. Learnings from
execution of the static test procedure will be inform the fatigue testing. The test loads
will be based on operational learnings from the current SUZLON wind turbines, from
coupon data, from static test results and from the updated finite element model. Up to
1,000,000 cycles of fatigue load cycles will be applied to the blade to demonstrate its
fatigue strength and durability.
Once the mechanical testing campaign is complete, the results will be analysed and
fed back into the design and manufacture of the commercial components. Additionally,
the finite element model will be updated based on these results.

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
10

3.6 Operational trials

A critical aspect in the development of a new wind turbine blade component is per-
forming operational trials in a real-world scenario. This trial will evaluate the mechan-
ical and erosion prevention performance of the blade component in real-world condi-
tions.
Operational trials will take place in the Penamacor Wind Farm in Portugal that is
being operated by Portugal OMS group, where there are 38 Suzlon S88/2100 (power
2,100 kW, diameter 88 m) wind turbines installed, which is shown in Fig. 5. This site
has been selected as leading-edge erosion has been identified as a serious issue due the
environmental condition at the site. The operational trials will be performed onshore as
the conditions at the site and size of the turbines are comparable to offshore wind tur-
bines, while reducing the cost of the trial and increasing access/monitoring capabilities
due to the more controlled setting. However, ultimately, the technology will be de-
ployed as a solution to leading-edge erosion in offshore wind turbine blades. Addition-
ally, as part of this deployment, standard testing will be performed on the finished
blades to DNVGL-CP-0424 [25].

Fig. 5. Penamacor Wind Farm in Portugal, where the operational trials for the new wind blade
component will take place

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
 11

Following the operational trials, the results will be analysed and reported to the pro-
ject partners, the steering committee and the European Commission. Additionally, the
results will be compared to the results from the physical testing and finite element mod-
els and this analysis will be included in the operational trials report. Following this, a
concise summary of these results will be disseminated to key project stakeholders, the
research community and members of the general public in the form of a peer-reviewed
publication in a high impact journal.

4 Conclusion

In this paper, the methodology proposed in LEAPWind, a new collaborative European

research project, which aims to prevent blade leading-edge erosion by employing ad-
vanced composite materials and innovative manufacturing processes has been pre-
sented. An advanced thermoplastic-epoxy composite material is used to manufacture a
leading edge component for a wind turbine blade. The critical technical stages, includ-
ing material identification and characterisation, component design and manufacture
have been discussed. Additionally, the details relating to de-risking of the novel tech-
nologies through mechanical and rain erosion testing, and full-scale operational trials
on a 2.1MW wind turbine, located in an onshore wind farm in Portugal, has been in-
cluded.
The immediate impact of this project will be the creation of a new wind energy prod-
uct as the existing technologies are advanced from a technology readiness level of 6 to
9, which will have both economic and social benefits, including job creation. In a recent
study, the levelised cost of offshore wind energy was shown to be €165/MWh [26]. The
results from this project will lower this cost as maintenance costs will be significantly
reduced by eradicating the need for repair due to leading-edge erosion, which is cur-
rently necessary every 5 years. Further environmental benefits will be generated as a
more reliable wind turbine blade can be manufactured, increasing the sustainability of
offshore wind energy, while contributing the UN Sustainable Development Goals [27].

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium sized Enter-
prises (EASME) in the European Commission through the LEAPWind project (Agree-
ment no.: EASME/EMFF/2017/1.2.1.12/S1/06/SI2.789307). The first and last authors
would like to acknowledge the support from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), through
the Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) research centre (Grant no.
12/RC/2302), and the Career Development Award programme (Grant No.
13/CDA/2200).

Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3
12

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Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
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981-13-8331-1_3
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Cite this paper as:

Finnegan W., Flanagan T., Goggins J. (2020) Development of a Novel Solution for
Leading Edge Erosion on Offshore Wind Turbine Blades. In: Wahab M. (eds) Proceed-
ings of the 13th International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures. Lecture
Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-
981-13-8331-1_3

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