Development of Novel Self-Healing

Polymer Composites for Use in Wind

Turbine Blades

Muhammad Tayyab Ahsan

MSE-12
Registration ID-203393
Synopsis
• What are Self Healing Materials?
• Classification of Self Healing Polymers
• Self-Healing Processes
• Use of Selfhealing materials in wind Turbine blades
• Experimentation
• Results and Discussions
• Conclusion
• References
Self-healing materials
• Smart materials
• Have the ability to repair damage without external aid
• Improves efficiency of the material
• Prolongs its lifetime
• Ability to mend thermal and fatigue damages.
How Does Self Healing Material Work
• This approach is inspired from nature where the wounds in mammals
are healed by bleeding of vascular network underneath the skin
History of Self Healing Polymers
• The first ever designed self-
healing polymer was called
‘Terminator’
• This polymer is made of
permanently cross linked
poly(urea-urethane) elastomeric
network that mends itself.
 Do not require
Autonomous an external
Self Healing stimulus
Processes
Non Require an
Autonomous external stimulus
Classification of Self Healing Polymers
• Microencapsulation Healing System
• Microvascular Healing System
• Intrinsic Healing Systems
Microencapsulation Healing System

• Monomer is encapsulated and embedded within

the thermosetting polymer.
• When the crack reaches the microcapsule, the capsule breaks and
the monomer bleeds into the crack, where it can polymerize and
mend the crack
Microvascular Healing Systems
• Contains the healing agent in a
network in the form of
capillaries or hollow channels,
which may be interconnected
until damage triggers self-
healing.
• Fabrication difficult
• Vascular networks can
be 1 dimensional, 2
dimensional or 3
dimensional.
Mechanism
• Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP)
• Dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) is stored in liquid form in the
microcapsule
• Grubb’s Catalyst polymerizes DCPD to poly DCPD which initiates
the process of self-healing.
Microencapsulation Healing Mechanism
Listing of capsule-based self-healing systems
Use of Selfhealing materials in wind Turbine
blades

• Wind power generation is high potential renewable resource,

• The wings of wind turbines are made up of fibre-reinforced epoxy.
• The wings get damaged due to alternating load caused by variations
in the wind
• Self-healing material systems in wind turbine blades added safety
mechanism to heal damages and prevent catastrophic failures
• Their lifetime can be extended using self healing materials
Experimentation
• PMC were made using Volan finish glass fiber material
• The molding procedure employed was vacuum assisted resin transfer
molding(VARTM)
VARTM
VARTM
• This process essentially infuses resin uniformly through the mold and
minimizes entrapped air by using a vacuum to degas and generate
suction.
• Six layers of glass fibers over wax coated die/base plate
• Over these, a layer of peel ply and breather material was laid and
they were then covered and sealed by a vacuum bag which has
provisions for resin-hardener mixture inlet and outlet
• The setup was checked for vacuum leakages and the gaps were
sealed.
VARTM
Parameters
Materials Commercial grade marine epoxy resin
Medium cure hardener
Fiber:Woven Fiber glass
Healing Agent :DCPD
Catalyst : Grubb
Tubes : Borosilicate glass
Mixing ratio 3:1 by volume

Suction pressure 551.58 kPa

Curing Temperature Room temperature

Curing time 24 hrs

VARTM

The samples containing microtubes involved an

additional step of accurate placement of the
microtubes between the glass fiber layers prior
to the molding process
The tubes were made of commercially available
Borosilicate glass capillary tubing.
Sample With-tubes/without- Use of catalyst and Uniqueness in
number tubes healing agent composition
composite of sample
1 Without-tubes No Control sample

2 With tubes No Tubes as a central

layer

3 With tubes Yes Tubes as a central

layer

4 With tubes Yes Tubes as the second

last layer

5 With tubes Yes Tubes as the last layer

samples with their uniqueness

Results & Discussions

SEM image of the glass fibers reinforcing the composite

SEM of sample prepared by VARTM

SEM image of the fractured mold sample that was subjected

to destructive tensile testing
SEM of sample prepared by Handlayup

SEM image of the fractured mold sample that was subjected

to destructive tensile testing
Tensile Strength Comparison
Flexural Strength comparison
Flexural Strength comparison
Flexural Strength comparison
Wind Tunnel testing of self-healing blade
• The scaled down wind turbine
was for more than 3 hours, out of
which it was run about 2 hours at
its maximum wind speed of
16.5m/s through its test section.
• Extra weights were added to
create imbalance and stress the
self-healing specimen to impart
cracks
Wind Tunnel testing of self-healing blade

Before wind tunnel test After wind tunnel test

Conclusion
• Maximum tensile strength was obtained with all the reinforcing glass fiber fabric
layers oriented in the same direction and processed using VARTM process
• Average recovery of flexural strength of 92.12% using the tubes as the central
layer, 87.11% using tubes as the second last layer, and 84.52% using tubes as the
last layer
• A 25% decrease in average tensile strength and 9% decrease in average flexural
strength
References
• [1] Dan Utech, "The Promise of Wind Energy," The White House Blog, 12 March 2015.[Online].
Available: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/12/promise-wind-energy.
• [2] U. S. Department of Energy, "Wind Vision," American Wind Energy Association, 2015.[Online].
Available:http://www.awea.org/content.aspx?ItemNumber=7300&RDtoken=61421&userID=&nav
ItemNumber=7077.
• [3] S. Campbell, "Annual blade failures estimated at around 3,800," WindPower Monthly, 14 May
2015. [Online]. Available:
• http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1347145/annual-blade-failures-estimatedaround-
3800. [Accessed 2016].
• [4] B. S. Nivedh, "Major Failures in the Wind Trubine Components and the Importance of Periodic
Inspections," www.windinsider.com, November 2014. [Online]. Available:
http://www.dewi.de/dewi_res/fileadmin/pdf/papers/WindInsider_November_2014.pdf.
• [5] C. Smith, "Fires are major cause of wind farm failure, according to new research," Imperial
college London, 17 July 2014. [Online]. Available:
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssum
mary/news_17-7-2014-8-56-10.