ANALYSIS MECHANISM

OF WIND TURBINE
FAILURE
FATIN NABILA BINTI SAFIUDIN
FATIN NUR FATIHAH BINTI RUSLI
NURUL AINI BINTI ZULKEFLI
WIND TURBINE
Wind turbines harness the wind, a clean,
free, and widely available renewable
energy source, to generate electric power.
According to a report from the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, depending
on make and model, wind turbines are
predominantly made of steel, fiberglass,
resin, or plastic, iron or cast iron, copper,
and aluminum.
WIND TURBINE FAILURE OCCURS
The most common external wind turbine failure
is typically damage to the blades caused by bird
strikes, lightning strikes, rainfall, blade furniture
detachment, delamination, leading-edge
corrosion, or blade cracks.
Wind turbine blade damage can be classified as
surface damage, coatings, interface damage, and
structural element damage. Surface erosion or
small object impacts can cause surface damage.
The damaged, rough surface can reduce the
aerodynamic performance of the blades and
energy generation. It does not prevent the wind
turbine from functioning, but the surface defects
grow and develop and can lead to structural
damage to the blade.
DAMAGE MECHANISMS OF WIND
TURBINE BLADES
The typical observed damage mechanisms of wind turbine
blades include skin and adhesive debonding, adhesive joint
failure, sandwich debonding, delamination, splitting along
fibers, and cracks in the gelcoat.
The blade failures are classified into root connection failure,
catastrophic structural buckling or separation, leading edge,
trailing edge, or other bond separation, lightning damage,
erosion, and failure at an outboard aerodynamic device.
The wind turbine blades consist of laminates, foams,
coatings, sandwich structures, and adhesive layers.
Wind turbine blade damage mechanisms are classified as
follows:
• surface damage (coating degradation)
• polymer resin and/or interface damage
• structural element damage (with broken structural
fibers)
REFERENCES
• “What Materials Are Used to Make Wind Turbines? | U.S. Geological Survey.” What
Materials Are Used to Make Wind Turbines? | U.S. Geological Survey, 23 Sept. 2019,
www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-materials-are-used-make-wind-turbines#:~:text=According
%20to%20a%20report%20from,aluminum%20(0%2D2%25).
• “How a Wind Turbine Works - Text Version.” Energy.gov,
www.energy.gov/eere/wind/how-wind-turbine-works-text-version. Accessed 4 Jan.
2023.
• “Most Common Reasons for Wind Turbine Failures.” Most Common Reasons for Wind
Turbine Failures, 20 Dec. 2022, www.cotes.com/blog/most-common-reasons-for-
wind-turbine-failures.
• Mishnaevsky, Jr. Leon. “Root Causes and Mechanisms of Failure of Wind Turbine
Blades: Overview.” PubMed Central (PMC), 19 Apr. 2022,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9101399.