NUMERICAL SIMULATION ON A JOINT SEGMENT OF A PRESTRESSED PREFABRICATED SECTIONAL WIND TURBINE BLADE MODEL

As high-power wind turbines develop, the length of the turbine blades tends to increase, and thus the difficulties, risk, and cost involved in transportation increase, especially for those wind farms located in mountainous areas. Dividing a traditional blade into several prefabricated segments and assembling them on-site is an efficient solution to overcome the above problems. In this study, a new prefabricated sectional wind turbine blade assembled by connecting the sectional blades with prestressed high-strength bolts is proposed and a stress analysis on the joint segment of the prefabricated blade model is carried out using a finite element method. The joint segment of a typical wind turbine blade is modeled with ABAQUS. The stress distribution of the joint segment is analyzed under four different design load cases in both flatwise and edgewise directions. Numerical simulation results show that the stress of the wind turbine blade and prestressed bolts under the four design load cases are all within the materials' acceptable stress range. In conclusion, the proposed prefabricated sectional blade using prestressed bolts is proven feasible and can be an alternative approach of traditional wind turbine blades.