Newly established German Voodin Blade Technology GmbH contacted WINDnovation with the idea to make rotor blades for the next generation wind turbines mainly from wood. While it sounded strange in the beginning, the engineers looked a little deeper and found charming aspects:
德國Voodin Blade 技術股份有限公司是一家剛剛加入風電行業的新公司。不久前,WINDnovation有幸收到來自Voodin Blade 的合作邀請,共同進行由木材為主要材料的下一代風電葉片設計工作。起初,這一想法似乎有些出格,但在我們的工程師進行了進一步研究后,發現這一想法的如下亮點:
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Recycling, one of the biggest headaches of glass or carbon fiber reinforced rotor blades, will not be an issue anymore.
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The relative stiffness (E-modulus/density) of the selected wood is nearly identical to UD glass fiber.
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The structural damping properties are much better than for composites.
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The raw material is very available at a low price.
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The final surface will be prepared by positive milling, so no moulds will be needed anymore. This is of special interest for the production of replacement blades where in many times production moulds are simply not available anymore.
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玻纖或碳纖增強材料風電葉片的一大不足之處是其不可循環性,而木制葉片則可以解決這一問題;
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所選用木材的相對剛度(E-模量/密度)幾乎與UD玻纖的剛度一樣;
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所選木材的結構阻尼性能遠優于復合材料;
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木材原材料供應充足且價格相對較低;
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葉片表面后處理使用順銑,因此葉片生產將不再需要模具。這一點對于更換老舊葉片非常重要,因為很多已經停產的葉片,其生產模具已經不存在或不可用。
For demonstrating the technology, currently a 20m blade is under development, which will run through all production steps, which are expected to be suitable for manufacturing of very large blades in the Multi-MW class. According to the plans, a fully sensor equipped first set will be installed in summer 2021 in Germany and be operated and closely monitored for at least one year.
作為該技術的示范項目,我們目前正在開發一款20米長的葉片,開發工作涵蓋所有的生產步驟。該技術預計可以適用于制造兆瓦級的超大型葉片。根據計劃,Voodin Blade將于2021年夏季在德國安裝并運行第一套完全配備傳感器的使用木制葉片的風電機組,后續并進行為期至少一年的密切監測。



It shall be mentioned that not all questions with regard to rotor blades made from wood are solved:
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Selection and application of the surface coating to make the blades last 20 or 25 years will need some research.
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To protect the leading edges from erosion will need same research and potentially tests.
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According to the current estimate the blades will be some 20% heavier than their glass fiber equivalent, some of the load increase resulting from the mass might be compensated by the higher structural damping, this is subject to further investigations.
當然,對于木制葉片技術,也還存在一些尚未解決的問題:
Voodin Blade Technology and WINDnovation will closely cooperate on finding good solutions to make the wooden blade technology mature. We will to publish updates every now and then talking about the latest achievements!
Voodin Blade Technology與WINDnovation將繼續開展密切合作,尋找最佳解決方案,使木制葉片技術走向成熟。我們也會不定時更新我們的研發進展,分享我們的最新成果!