Small Wind Turbine Composite Blade PRoperties ON Demand by Means of Functionally Graded Materials

Project Information

PROND

Grant agreement ID: 239191

Closed project

Start date 2 April 2009

End date 1 April 2012

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost € 45 000,00

EU contribution € 45 000,00

Coordinated by

SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE NV
Belgium

Objective

The use of renewable energy sources in Europe will increase, leading to more sustainable energy mix and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Wind has been the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last seven years, and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy. Small wind systems can produce electricity cheaper than the grid and payback their embedded carbon within months. Today Europe has literally millions of homes and businesses waiting to benefit from the effective deployment of this technology.
The main goal of this project is to investigate coupled mechanical and aero-dynamic properties the self-adaptive blade of small wind turbine made of functionally graded composite materials.A combination of non-destructive experimental and numerical simulation methods will be employed. Both structural and wind tunnel test results will be used in two ways: to derive knowledge of a structural and aerodynamic properties of a structure and to update the Finite Element and Computational Fluid Dynamic coupled in Fluid-Structure Interaction approach according to values obtained from tests. This information will be used to introduce the blade self adapting concept into the internal architecture design by means of functionally graded materials. An optimization techniques for numerical models parts will be applied in the pursuit of maximum structural efficiency, maximum performance of the turbine and a low cost of the unit. Such a combination demands to take advantage of knowledge from several fields: structural identification, fluid mechanics, composite materials, measurement methods, signal processing, numerical modeling, model updating, optimization, statistics.
As a result of this project the optimized design and prototype of the self adaptive blade of small wind turbine will be delivered. Also a set of updated numerical models will be developed.

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › materials engineering › composites
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › signal processing
• engineering and technology › mechanical engineering › vehicle engineering › aerospace engineering › aircraft
• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › energy and fuels › renewable energy › wind power
• natural sciences › physical sciences › classical mechanics › fluid mechanics › fluid dynamics › computational fluid dynamics

Keywords

• Mechanical engineering
• Wind energy technology

Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• PEOPLE-2007-2-2.ERG - Marie Curie Action: "European Reintegration Grants"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-ERG-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-ERG - European Re-integration Grants (ERG)

Coordinator

SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE NV

Administrative Contact

Els Tops (Ms.)

• Address: Interleuvenlaan 68 ; 3001 Leuven ; Belgium
• Region: Vlaams Gewest › Prov. Vlaams-Brabant › Arr. Leuven
• Activity type: Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
• EU contribution: € 45 000,00