Stiffeners sandwich-blade

The relative efficiency of the two stiffeners is compared principally on the basis of the torsional resistance. The reason for the lower efficiency rating of the sandwich-blade stiffener is its low torsional resistance (and the bending stiffness is not high) and for the high efficiency of the hat stiffener is its high torsional resistance because of the basic open-versus closed-section stiffener issue. Stiffener torsional resistance affects the buckling load of a stiffened panel or shell as shown by Card and Jones [7-3]. 

Suppose we want to analyze the stresses in the two stiffeners. The geometry of the sandwich-blade stiffener is actually more complicated and less amenable to analysis than is the hat-shaped stiffener. Issues that arise in the analysis to determine the influence of the various portions of the stiffeners include the in-plane shear stiffness. In the plane of the vertical blade is a certain amount of shear stiffness. That is, the shear stiffness is necfessary to transfer load from the 0° fibers at the top of the stiffener down to the panel. In hat-shaped stiffeners, that shear stiffness is the only way that load is transferred from the 0° fibers at the top of the stiffener down to the panel. Thus, shear stiffness is the dominant issue in the design. And that is why we typically put 45° fibers in the web of the hat-shaped stiffener. 

Another issue that turns out to be very important for the sandwich-blade stiffener, but not at all important for the hat-shaped stiffener, is shear in the vertical web. Not shear in the plane of the web, but shear in the plane perpendicular to the web. This transverse shear stiffness turns out to dominate the behavior or be very important in the behavior of the sandwich blade, but simply is not addressed at all in the hatshaped stiffener. You can imagine that the transverse shearing stiffness would be more important in the sandwich blade when you consider the observation that the sandwich blade is a thick element and the hatshaped stiffener is a thin element. That is, bending and in-plane shear would dominate this response, whereas transverse shear, because the sandwich blade is thick, can very easily be an important factor in the sandwich blade. For both stiffeners, appropriate analyses and design rationale have been developed to be able to make an optimally shaped stiffener. 

Typical large wind turbine blades consist of outer skins supported by a main spar and stiffeners.The blades are generally constructed using synthetic fibre/polymeric matrix composites, and may have a sandwich construction. 

A typical blade of large wind turbines consists of outer skins supported by a main spar and stiffeners. The blades are generally constructed using fibre/ polymeric matrix composites and may have a sandwich construction with low density polymer foam or balsa wood cores. The epoxy-based eomposites are of greatest interest to wind turbine manufacturers beeause they dehver a combination of environmental, production and cost advantages over other resin systems. Epoxies also improve wind turbine composite blade manufacture by allowing a shorter cure cycle, increased durability and improved surface finish. The utilisation of epoxy infusion or prepreg manufacture (see Sections... 

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