CESS seminar series - Advanced Testing and Digital Twinning of Large-scale Thin-walled Composite Structures
Abstract
With a length of over 120 m, composite wind turbine blades are among the largest single components in the world which are primarily made of fiber polymer composite materials. Working in harsh environments and under complex loading, such large-scale, thin-walled composite structures must maintain their structural integrity and reliability over 25 years service life with minimum maintenance. This challenges the wind energy industry in many ways as the time to market is crucial and yet the prototype certification is extremely expensive and time-consuming. In this seminar, the latest research and innovation in advanced structural testing and high-performance modeling techniques of large-scale thin-walled composite blade structures will be presented. Particular focus will be placed on full-scale and subcomponent structural testing under realistic static and fatigue loads, novel computer-vision-based damage inspection and structural health monitoring techniques, and advanced finite element modeling techniques that can predict complex fracture and damage phenomena in full-scale wind turbine blade structures and their critical structural details – not only accurately but also efficiently. The simulation efficiency and calculation speed are greatly escalated to an unparalleled level by several recently developed key enabling technologies which will achieve high-fidelity and high-speed digital twinning of such large-scale thin-walled composite structures.
Short bio
Dr. Chen is Associate Professor at Department of Wind and Energy Systems at Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He received his doctoral degree in structural engineering in 2011 from Nagoya University in Japan and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the National Wind Energy Center at the University of Houston, Texas, USA. From 2013, he was an assistant professor and then associate professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing before he joined DTU in 2017, where he is the team leader of composite structures. Dr. Chen is a member of several international scientific and technical committees such as the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Villum Center for Advanced Structural and Material Testing, International Conference on Composite Structures, and International Conference on Mechanics of Composites. He is the Principe Investigator of several research projects funded by Innovation Fond of Denmark, the Danish Energy Agency, the European Commission, The Villum Foundation, Danish Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program and the National Science Foundation of China. He has published more than 30 research articles in the field of advanced testing and high-performance modeling of composite blades with a focus on structural damage, fracture and digitalization using Industry 4.0 technologies.
With a length of over 120 m, composite wind turbine blades are among the largest single components in the world which are primarily made of fiber polymer composite materials. Working in harsh environments and under complex loading, such large-scale, thin-walled composite structures must maintain their structural integrity and reliability over 25 years service life with minimum maintenance. This challenges the wind energy industry in many ways as the time to market is crucial and yet the prototype certification is extremely expensive and time-consuming. In this seminar, the latest research and innovation in advanced structural testing and high-performance modeling techniques of large-scale thin-walled composite blade structures will be presented. Particular focus will be placed on full-scale and subcomponent structural testing under realistic static and fatigue loads, novel computer-vision-based damage inspection and structural health monitoring techniques, and advanced finite element modeling techniques that can predict complex fracture and damage phenomena in full-scale wind turbine blade structures and their critical structural details – not only accurately but also efficiently. The simulation efficiency and calculation speed are greatly escalated to an unparalleled level by several recently developed key enabling technologies which will achieve high-fidelity and high-speed digital twinning of such large-scale thin-walled composite structures.
Short bio
Dr. Chen is Associate Professor at Department of Wind and Energy Systems at Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He received his doctoral degree in structural engineering in 2011 from Nagoya University in Japan and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the National Wind Energy Center at the University of Houston, Texas, USA. From 2013, he was an assistant professor and then associate professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing before he joined DTU in 2017, where he is the team leader of composite structures. Dr. Chen is a member of several international scientific and technical committees such as the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Villum Center for Advanced Structural and Material Testing, International Conference on Composite Structures, and International Conference on Mechanics of Composites. He is the Principe Investigator of several research projects funded by Innovation Fond of Denmark, the Danish Energy Agency, the European Commission, The Villum Foundation, Danish Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program and the National Science Foundation of China. He has published more than 30 research articles in the field of advanced testing and high-performance modeling of composite blades with a focus on structural damage, fracture and digitalization using Industry 4.0 technologies.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Olga Fink (IMOS-EPFL), Prof. Alexandre Elahi (VITA-EPFL), Prof. Dusan Licina (HOBEL-EPFL) and Prof. Alain Nussbaumer (RESSLab-EPFL)
Contact
- Prof. Dimitrios Lignos (RESSLab-EPFL)