Global Centers Track 2: Enhanced Wind Turbine Blade Durability

风力涡轮机从风中提取动能并将其转化为电能。风能的动能含量足以满足世界所有的电力需求。在不到一年的制造时间里，风力涡轮机产生的电力超过了其制造和部署所使用的电力。由于这些原因，风能正在对绿色能源革命作出越来越重要的贡献。风力涡轮机叶片经过精心设计，具有空气动力学性能，可最大限度地提高发电量。然而，风力涡轮机在其25至30年的运行寿命期间也会经历非常恶劣的条件，这可能导致叶片损坏。这种材料损失和叶片粗糙化称为前缘侵蚀（LEE）。它降低了空气动力学性能，可能需要维修或更换，这既降低了可靠性，又增加了能源成本。全球中心第二轨道设计奖的目标是降低风力发电的能源成本，提高风力涡轮机的可靠性。解决这一问题需要采用这里所采用的协调一致的多学科方法。NSF全球中心计划吸引了来自美国（康奈尔大学）、英国（兰开斯特大学）、加拿大（加拿大风能研究所）、挪威（卑尔根大学）、丹麦（丹麦技术大学和Orsted）和西班牙（西班牙国家可再生能源中心）的学术界和从业人员的合作伙伴。国际团队将共同制定一项战略，以减少LEE预测中的关键不确定性来源，这些不确定性来自风力涡轮机部署或将要部署的不同位置，并提高叶片的耐用性。减少LEE是全球风力涡轮机制造商和风电场业主运营商的优先事项，并将改善能源生产。 该项目的技术目标是：（一）改进LEE预测，优化施工前模型模拟的减排战略。(ii)提出新的检测方法以优化维修计划。(iii)通过材料科学的进步减少LEE，以减少损害。(iv)通过改进对高度破坏性事件的预测/观测检测来减少损害，从而使风电场能够动态运行以减少LEE。该项目的愿景是围绕一个系统的方法，并将在4个相互关联的主题：主题1。大气驱动因素，主题2。损伤检测和量化，主题3。材料响应和重新设计，以及主题4。LEE的空气动力学意义。在这个规划阶段的项目中，研究人员将进行一系列现象识别和排名表（PIRT）分析，并推进解决LEE所需的基础科学和工程知识。其结果将是一个端到端的过程级评估，研究优先级加上一个强大的模型验证和确认（V V）框架，用于构建多尺度跨学科模型链，以生成地理上分散的站点LEE潜力的先验估计。这一工具将为前沿防护要求和/或其他缓解行动的评估提供信息。 该奖项由全球中心计划资助，该计划是一项创新计划，支持以使用为灵感的研究，解决与气候变化和/或清洁能源相关的全球挑战。途径2设计奖支持美国-该奖项旨在鼓励国际研究团队共同开发研究问题和合作伙伴关系，进行景观分析，综合数据和/或建立多方利益相关者网络，以在未来更大规模地推进其使用启发式研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Wind turbines extract kinetic energy from the wind and convert it into electricity. The kinetic energy content of the wind is sufficient to supply all of the world’s electricity needs. Within less than a year of manufacture wind turbines have generated more electricity than is used in their manufacture and deployment. For these reasons wind energy is making an increasingly important contribution to the green energy revolution. Wind turbine blades are carefully designed for aerodynamic performance to maximize the amount of electricity generated. However, wind turbines also experience very harsh conditions during their 25-to-30-year operating lifetimes that can lead to blade damage. This material loss and roughening of the blades is called leading edge erosion (LEE). It decreases aerodynamic performance and may require repair or replacement which both decreases reliability and increases the cost of energy. The goal of this Global Centers Track 2 Design award is to reduce the cost of energy for wind-generated electricity and enhance the reliability of wind turbines. Addressing this topic requires a coherent multi-disciplinary approach as applied here. This NSF-Global Centers initiative draws partners from academia and practitioners in the US (Cornell University), the UK (University of Lancaster), Canada (Wind Energy Institute of Canada), Norway (University of Bergen), Denmark (Technical University of Denmark and Orsted) and Spain (National Renewable Energy Center of Spain). Together the international team will develop a strategy to reduce key sources of uncertainty in LEE projections from different locations in which wind turbines are, or will be, deployed and to enhance blade durability. Reducing LEE is a priority for global wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm owner operators and would improve energy generation. Technical goals of the project are: (i) Improve forecasting of LEE and optimize abatement strategies for pre-construction model simulations. (ii) Advance new detection methods to optimize repair scheduling. (iii) Reduce LEE through materials science advances to reduce damage. (iv) Reduce damage by improved forecasting/observational detection of highly damaging events to enable dynamic operation of wind farms to reduce LEE. The project vision is built around a systems approach and will be addressed within 4-interlinked themes: Theme 1. Atmospheric drivers, Theme 2. Damage detection and quantification, Theme 3. Materials response and redesign, and Theme 4. Aerodynamic implications of LEE. In this planning phase project, the researchers will perform a series of Phenomena Identification and Ranking Tables (PIRT) analyses, and advance fundamental science and engineering knowledge necessary to address LEE. The result will be an end-to-end process-level assessment, research prioritization plus a robust model verification and validation (V&V) framework for constructing a multi-scale inter-disciplinary model chain to generate a priori estimates of LEE potential at geographically dispersed sites. This tool will inform assessments of leading-edge protection requirements and/or other mitigation actions. This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative program that supports use-inspired research addressing global challenges related to climate change and/or clean energy. Track 2 design awards support U.S.-based researchers to bring together international teams to develop research questions and partnerships, conduct landscape analyses, synthesize data, and/or build multi-stakeholder networks to advance their use-inspired research at larger scale in the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.