TY - GEN A1 - Ghafafian, Carineh T1 - Damage Mechanisms of Scarf Joint Repairs for Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Shell Applications N2 - Wind turbine rotor blades, made of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP), often fail before their projected 20-year lifespan, largely due to defects that originate during manufacturing and are propagated by operational fatigue and environmental conditions. The cost-intensive replacement outcomes lead to a high loss of earnings, and are one of the inhibitors of wind turbine production [1]. A potential repair alternative is to locally patch these areas of the blades with adhesively bonded structural repairs. However, the effects of such repair methods of the outer shell region on the structural integrity of the rotor blades are still largely unknown, and are thus investigated in this project. The shell components of rotor blades are made of FRP composite material sandwiching a lightweight core, often a rigid foam or Balsa wood. The repair methods involve replacing the lost load path with a new material that is joined to the parent structure [2]. Repairs in this project focus on the scarf method, which allow for a smoother load distribution across the joint, aiming to study the damage mechanism of glass FRP scarf repairs for wind turbine blade shell applications. Namely, the source and path of the damage initiation and propagation, role of the interface between parent and patch material, and the role of the fiber orientation mismatch at this interface are examined. Biaxial ±45° and 0/90° FRP specimens are produced with the vacuum-assisted resin infusion (VARI) process using E-glass non-crimp fabric. The patch layers are then joined using VARI with a scarf ratio of 1:50, using glass FRP fabric with half the areal weight of the parent side to allow for better drapability. The methods and practices in specimen production are based on common industry practice in rotor blade shell manufacturing and repairs. The specimens are tested under uniaxial tensile load, during which they are periodically monitored for damage onset. A comparison of the ±45° and 0/90° specimens allows for an understanding of the role of a highly mismatching fiber orientation in the transition zone between parent and patch material on the failure mechanism of the scarf joint. Although failure in both orientations begins as delamination at the joint edge, the difference in the mechanisms at play in the two different specimen types leads ultimately to different fracture paths. Namely, in the inter fiber failure mechanism of the ±45° specimens, the higher interlaminar strength compared to the intralaminar strength of the laminate leads to intralaminar failure of the ±45° scarf joint specimens. Alternatively, the competition in the 0/90° specimens lies between the interlaminar strength and fiber failure strength, and here we experience failure primarily across the scarf joint length. The scarf joint in the 0/90° specimens disrupts the continuity of the load-carrying 0° layers, directing the failure path to remain primarily along the scarf joint. Experimental results are compared to finite element analyses of scarf patch repairs on glass FRP sandwich specimens with the same respective layup orientations, where the damage initiation regions are identified and correlated to fiber orientation, serving as a bridge to future work which will experimentally examine the scarf repair patches on sandwich shell specimens. T2 - Joint Event: ICCS23 - 23rd International Conference on Composite Structures & MECHCOMP6 - 6th International Conference on Mechanics of Composites CY - Online meeting DA - 01.09.2020 KW - Wind turbine blade shells KW - Glass fiber reinforced polymers KW - Scarf repairs PY - 2020 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51175 AN - OPUS4-51175 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany