During the manufacturing process of blades for wind turbines, the shape may distort and thus there is a deviation from the designed target shape. What is the impact of this distortion on the turbine loads and the energy yield?
Malo Rosemeier (IWES) and Matthias Saathoff (PEC) simulated two different models to analyze this issue. The investigation of a use case showed that there is indeed a 0.5% decrease in energy yield. Yet on the other hand, the distorted blade leads to lower loads which result in additional remaining useful life of 4.4 years than can be used in the lifetime extension.
A paper on this topic was presented on the online conference Torque 2020 (September 28th – October 2nd, 2020). Watch the presentation and read the paper here to find out more!