When an engineer is tasked with designing a wind blade he faces many challenges. First he must be sure that the 35- to 40-meter 1.5 MW blade is sturdy enough to withstand the dynamic forces which will be imposed upon the blade but remain light enough to attain maximum rotor speed. Secondly  he must be sure that the 6 to 7 ton blade is thick and strong enough at the root to support the long blade while maintaining the structural integrity of the energy-capturing part of the blade. Finally, he must also remember that the blade needs to be manufactured at a reasonable cost and not be too complicated to build on the factory floor. Given the variety of composites available to the engineer this can be an arduous task.

Collier Research’s HyperSizer, which is  integrated with Abaqus  allows the engineer to achieve a realistic, fully-optimized, and manufacturable design and eliminate costly hours of manual design. For more information see the article titled, “Improving Wind Blade Manufacturability” found in the December 2012 issue of Wind Systems Magazine.