Wind Turbine Blade Inspection Tests at UCSD

The wind energy industry is rapidly growing in order to meet the increasing world energy demands as well as the need for clean and renewable energy sources. With the goal to explore new technologies and innovations which could help potentially improve the efficiency and effectiveness of wind energy, the NDE/SHM laboratory at UCSD acquired a unique wind turbine blade that will be used for performing several research projects related to wind turbine blade technology and non-destructive inspection techniques. The blade was built using the CX-100 design developed by TPI Composites, Inc. and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL). The 9-m blade was constructed with several embedded defects that represent the most common manufacturing defects typically found, such as out-of-plane waviness, composite delamination, and adhesive disbond. The defects were embedded during the manufacturing process by using similar methods developed by both TPI and SNL for simulating actual defect characteristics. Though the blade is small in comparison to the average utility sized blade of around 40 meters, the blade features similar materials and manufacturing methods, allowing for several inspections techniques to be studied on a representative platform. The inspection techniques include advanced infrared thermography and other guided wave techniques.