I-Corps: Value-Added Products from Decommissioned Composite Material Wind Turbine Blades

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是探索由再利用的纤维增强聚合物（FRP）复合材料风力涡轮机叶片生产的大众市场建筑、工程和建筑（AEC）产品的翻译。玻璃钢风力涡轮机叶片由高质量的复合材料制成，但不回收成新的玻璃钢材料。因此，废弃的叶片目前被填埋或焚烧。这些处置方法从经济、环境和社会角度来看是有问题的。数以千计的第一代风力涡轮机目前正在退役，叶片因缺乏替代处理方案而被储存。 使用所提出的技术，风力叶片将转换为电力传输结构和其他大型民用基础设施产品，使用研究开发的专有软件和硬件。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发风力叶片建模和分析的算法和软件，以及风力叶片再利用的方法。该算法从激光扫描或照片构建的点云自动创建风力涡轮机叶片的几何和结构模型。这些算法还创建了在土木工程负载条件下对重复使用结构进行结构分析所需的工程特性数据，这些负载条件与风力叶片最初设计时的空气动力学负载有很大不同。该软件包括风力叶片数字模型的自动化生产方法，用于可视化，产品设计，结构设计和分析，以及制造和施工，所有这些都从使用LIDAR或摄影测量对叶片数字化扫描的专有处理开始。此外，新的方法和硬件可以促进风力叶片在大规模民用基础设施应用中的结构再使用应用。进一步的研究提供了预测退役风力涡轮机叶片内复合材料剩余寿命的能力，以及用于各种重复使用应用的安全应力极限。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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to explore translation of mass-market architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) products produced from repurposed Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite wind turbine blades. FRP wind turbine blades are made from high quality composite materials but do not recycle into new FRP materials. As a result, obsolete blades are currently disposed in a landfill or incinerated. These disposal methods are problematic from an economic, environmental, and social perspective. Thousands of first-generation wind turbines are currently being decommissioned and the blades stockpiled for want of alternative disposal solutions. Using the proposed technology, the wind blades will be converted to electrical power transmission structures and other large-scale civil infrastructure products using proprietary software and hardware developed by the research. This I-Corps project is based on the development of algorithms and software for wind blade modeling and analysis and in methods for wind blade re-use. The algorithms create geometric and structural models of wind turbine blades automatically from point clouds built from laser scans or photographs. The algorithms also create engineering property data required for structural analysis of the re-use structures under civil engineering loading conditions, which are quite different from the aerodynamic loading for which the wind blades were originally designed. The software includes methods for the automated production of digital models of the wind blades, for visualization, product design, structural design and analysis, and fabrication and construction, all starting from the proprietary processing of digitized scans of the blades using LIDAR or photogrammetry. In addition, new methods and hardware may facilitate structural re-use applications of the wind blades in large-scale civil infrastructure applications. Further research provides the ability to predict the remaining life in the composite materials within the decommissioned wind turbine blades and safe stress limits for use in various re-use applications.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.