In situ thermography of crack growth in sandwich shell segments with manufactured imperfections
- A new test rig for the efficient material testing of curved GFRP composite specimens is developed. The presented intermediate scale test facility allows the fatigue testing of representative shell segments of rotor blades for the wind power industry. The non-destructive condition monitoring is performed by a combination of thermography and optical 3 D deformation analysis, automated in situ throughout the fatigue test. In many cases cracks in the shells of wind turbine rotor blades are detected long time before the calculated lifetime of 20 years. As a consequence of the harsh weather conditions damage progress occurs, that causes costly in-service repairs. Approximately 70% to 80% of defects in rotor blades are the consequence of imperfections through the manufacturing process or the rotor blade design. Production-related imperfections are supposed to be one possible reason for crack formation and crack growth. Therefore, a test rig for shell structures is constructed and launchedA new test rig for the efficient material testing of curved GFRP composite specimens is developed. The presented intermediate scale test facility allows the fatigue testing of representative shell segments of rotor blades for the wind power industry. The non-destructive condition monitoring is performed by a combination of thermography and optical 3 D deformation analysis, automated in situ throughout the fatigue test. In many cases cracks in the shells of wind turbine rotor blades are detected long time before the calculated lifetime of 20 years. As a consequence of the harsh weather conditions damage progress occurs, that causes costly in-service repairs. Approximately 70% to 80% of defects in rotor blades are the consequence of imperfections through the manufacturing process or the rotor blade design. Production-related imperfections are supposed to be one possible reason for crack formation and crack growth. Therefore, a test rig for shell structures is constructed and launched into operation. In the test bench sandwich shells and full laminate shells of different sizes with artificially created defects (e.g. wrinkles, laminate change, etc.) are tested under cyclic tension and compression load. The characterization of the damage state and evolution during the fatigue test by simultaneous passive thermography and optical 3D deformation analysis is performed. The in- and out-off-plane deformations of sandwich shells under cyclic tension and compression load are determined by optical 3 D deformation analysis (with ARAMIS). For the non-destructive detection of developing material defects (e.g. cracks) in the shells due to cyclic loading thermography is used. The passive thermography is well suited for the characterization of the crack formation and crack growth of composites during fatigue tests. The cyclic strain energy introduces the damage and the damage progress can be recorded and documented in the material. By thermography the damage is recognized in the laminate long time, before the surface of the painted specimen is damaged. The experiments show a correlation between the hotspots, observed by passive thermography and the location of the final failure.
In the paper the design of the test bench and the results of the experiments will be presented.…