Imprinted Glass Fiber-Reinforced Epoxy Nanocomposites Vascular Self-Healing Wind Turbine Blades

Wind energy is a primary renewable energy source and has been one of the most promising sources of clean, long-term energy. Self-healing is the autonomous ability to recover from failure. Self-healing material systems in wind turbine blades can reduce maintenance, repair, and energy compensation costs. Investigation of the self-healing wind turbine blades is of core interest in this study. This paper initially introduces self-healing properties into vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding molded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) nanocomposites and lab preparation for studying the effect of incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the self-healing capabilities using dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and Grubbs first-generation catalyst. A vascular network was imprinted in a single glass fiber FRP sheet utilizing hexagonal 3D printed templates, infused with DCPD, and later embedded into a multilayer FRP. The effect of adding epoxy resin with 0.3 wt% CNTs to the multilayer FRP was investigated. The samples were tested before and after recovery by performing the three-point bending test. The maximum flexural strengths and percent recovery for the non-healed and healed FRP samples were calculated. Interestingly, the strength of the samples increased at least ten times after the addition of CNTs to the composite, and the percentage of stress recovery was doubled on average.