Stability impact on wind turbine blades trailing edge from bonding zone modelling methods

Abstract The trailing edge of wind turbine blade will undergo a large deformation under the action of load, resulting in a higher risk of damage and failure. The finite element analysis modeling method directly affects the simulation result, furthermore impacts the result of blade structure design. Therefore, it is necessary to find out a modeling method, which is capable to reflect the stability of bonding regions more accurately. This paper aims to discuss the influences of different finite element modeling methods on the buckling stability of blade trailing edge. The influences of shell element, tetrahedron element and hexahedron element on the blade stiffness are considered. The bonding region were simulated separately by combining shell element with bonding web, shell element with tetrahedron element and shell element with hexahedron. The influences of different bonding region modeling methods on the trailing edge buckling factor were analyzed by using the eigenvalue buckling analysis method of finite element. The simulation results provided data support for the future validation of the blade trailing edge bonding area modeling method. The results show that, the tetrahedral mesh provides a higher stiffness, followed by the hexahedral mesh, and the adhesive web form has the smallest stiffness. In order to simulate the more realistic stiffness of the adhesive area at the trailing edge of the blade, adhesive web plates can be built in the flange area of the blade root and the core material area of the trial adhesive mold; The direct bonding area can be simulated employing the hexahedron mesh; The tetrahedral mesh has high stiffness and is not suitable for modeling the adhesive area at the trailing edge. Blade simulation modeling can flexibly use different adhesive forms according to actual situations, ensuring the reliability of the simulation model.