TY - GEN A1 - Trappe, Volker T1 - Scarf-joint repairs under fatigue loading investigated for sandwich shell applications N2 - Wind turbine rotor blades are produced as aerodynamic, three-dimensionally formed sandwich shell structures using mainly glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP). The GFRP used today have the potential to withstand the harsh operating conditions of rotor blades over the projected service life of 20 years. Premature damages that occur can be traced primarily back to design and/or manufacturing imperfections, as well as unusually high load scenarios (for instance lightning strikes, or strong winds combined with system control errors). Therefore, rotor blades have to be repaired several times (on average 2-3 times) during their projected service life. Approximately 70% of these are repairs of small- to medium-sized sandwich shells, carried out by technicians directly accessing the blade by suspended roping at the wind turbine location. The goal is to execute repairs that will last over the remaining service life, i.e. be sustainable. Within the framework of a research project carried out at BAM, Division 5.3 Polymer Matrix Composites, Department 5 for Materials Engineering, not only was the geometric shape (round vs. square in relation to the top view) varied, but also the layup of the scarf repair structure, variables that have not been studied systematically to-date. Sub-component scale sandwich shell specimens with representative repairs were used in this work in addition to coupon-scale specimens that are more commonly seen in literature. These sub-component shell specimens were tested using a unique shell test bench under loading conditions representative of wind turbine blade shell operating conditions with respect to fatigue strength. Using non-destructive testing methods (field strain measurement and thermography), damage development and distribution was monitored and analyzed in-situ. As a result, a concept was developed in which the repaired areas showed at least equivalent if not higher fatigue strength than the reference shells that were not repaired. T2 - ICFC9 - The 9th International Conference on the Fatigue of Composites CY - Vicenza, Italy DA - 21.06.2023 KW - Repair of sandwich shell structures KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Wind turbine blades PY - 2023 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57929 AN - OPUS4-57929 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany