This document describes a student team project to develop a laminate code to analyze composite materials for wind turbine blades. The team analyzed different laminate configurations of carbon fiber and glass fiber plies with various orientations and checked if they would fail under expected axial and torsional loads using the Tsai-Hill failure criterion. Their GUI worked successfully and they found that some configurations did not fail while others did fail and required redesigning the laminate.

1. 11
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
Team Project - Composite Materials of Blades
ME 5720 - Mechanics of Composite Materials
Instructor: Professor Golam Newaz
Students:
Harshada Patil(fx4157,004508152)
Utkarsh Kopargaonkar(fx3900,004507890)
Yongshuai Ping (fr6888,004459771)
Saurabh Deshpande(fx7002,004511084)
Fall 2015
December 10, 2015

2. 2
Problem description:
GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A LAMINATE CODE OR SOFTWARE
TO CONDUCT ACCURATE CALCULATIONS FOR COMPOSITE LAMINATE
DESIGN.
Develop a hybrid laminate with carbon fiber and glass fiber plies in sections A or B with selected
orientations that will have high Gxy and EX for the laminate so that it can resist high Axial (Nx )
and out-of plane Torsional (Mxy) loads. Research wind-loading and use values of these two
forces and neglect all others and estimate the mechanical stresses in each ply and determine
using Tsai-Hill failure criterion if any of the plies will fail. If any ply fails, your team needs to
redesign the laminate with new plies and ensure there will be no failure. Use the Griffin and
Ashwill paper in Blackboard as a reference. Project report should include 2-5 page write-up on
laminate configuration and results of analysis in one section called EXTENDED ABSTRACT
with key findings and results. Provide a hard copy and a soft copy with software code in a USB
or CD.
For our team, our problem type is A, which means 7 plies.
Given information:
1. Thickness of all plies is 3 mm.
2. Choose two types of composite materials(Carbon & Glass) and decide the orientations of 7
plies.
To find:
1. Axial force (Nx) and edgewise bending moment (Mxy).
2. Check whether the laminate fails or not.

3. 3
Calculations of Nx and Mxy.
According to the pdf file (Duan paper): The wind speed taken is 10m/s.
For Axial Force (Nx),
Assumption: the paper has not given any details about the thickness of the plies so one can
assume it to be unit thickness.
Normal load is approximated to be 1800 N/mm, for 8 plies; therefore, for 7 plies, Normal load =
mmN /15757
8
1800
=× .
mmGPa −= 575.1
1000
1575
.
Therefore, Nx = 1.575 GPa-mm
For Edgewise Bending Moment (Mxy),
According to the graph (c) in fig. 2.8 on page 21 in ECN Boorsma report , for wind speed of 10
m/sec, the edgewise moment = 1950N-m, therefore, for our thickness, N
m
mN
1641
188.1
1950
=
−
. The
length of the spar box is 1188 mm from the paper for the project which was already posted in
Blackboard.
2
641.1
1000
1641
mmGPa −= .
Therefore, Mxy = 1.641 GPa-mm2

4. 4
Results and comments:
Situation 1: Types of composite materials are AS/3501 carbon/epoxy and ScotchplyTM
1002E-
glass/epoxy.
Properties information:
AS/3501 carbon/epoxy: E1=138GPa, E2=9.0GPa, G12=6.9GPa, v12=0.3, SL
(+)
=1448MPa,
SL
(-)
=1172MPa, ST
(+)
=48.3MPa, ST
(-)
=248MPa, SLT=62.1MPa.
ScotchplyTM
1002E-glass/epoxy: E1=38.6GPa, E2=8.27GPa, G12=4.14GPa, v12=0.26,
SL
(+)
=1103MPa, SL
(-)
=621MPa, ST
(+)
=27.6MPa, ST
(-)
=138MPa, SLT=82.7MPa.
#1 ply #2 ply #3 ply #4 ply #5 ply #6 ply #7 ply
Orientation(θ ) 0 45 45 45 0 0 0
We ran the program using these values and the laminate did not fail.
The biggest Tsai-hill Value came out to be 0.6 approx.
Situation 2: Types of composite materials are AS/3501 carbon/epoxy and ScotchplyTM
1002E-
glass/epoxy.
#1 ply #2 ply #3 ply #4 ply #5 ply #6 ply #7 ply
Orientation(θ ) 0 45 90 90 90 45 0
We ran the program using these values and the laminate failed.
Tsaihilltop5 = 1.2711, Top surface of #5 ply fail.
Tsaihillbottom5 = 1.2261, Bottom surface of #5 ply fail.
Situation 3: Types of composite materials are AS/3501 carbon/epoxy and ScotchplyTM
1002E-
glass/epoxy.
#1 ply #2 ply #3 ply #4 ply #5 ply #6 ply #7 ply
Orientation(θ ) 0 45 -45 -45 90 60 0
We ran the program using these values and the laminate did not fail.
The biggest Tsai-hill Value came out to be 0.9 approx.

5. 5
GUI Interface:
The GUI works successfully as shown below:
References:
[1]. Wei Duan, Feng Zhao, Loading Analysis and Strength Cacluation of Wind Turbine Blade
Based on Blade Element Momentum Theory and Finite Element Method, Baoding, China, 2010
[2]. Danny Sale and Alberto Aliseda, Structural Design of Composite Blades for Wind and
Hydrokinetic Turbines, University of Washington, 2012
[3]. Peter J. Schubel and Richard J. Crossley, Wind Turbine Blade Design, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham, 2012
[4]. Chatmongkon Rattanapanudda, Horizontal axis wind turbine design using the blade element
momentum theory, Wayne State University, 2011
[5]. Bhagyashree suna, Design and Analysis of Laminated Composite Materials, National
Institute of Technology, Rourkela.

6. 5
GUI Interface:
The GUI works successfully as shown below:
References:
[1]. Wei Duan, Feng Zhao, Loading Analysis and Strength Cacluation of Wind Turbine Blade
Based on Blade Element Momentum Theory and Finite Element Method, Baoding, China, 2010
[2]. Danny Sale and Alberto Aliseda, Structural Design of Composite Blades for Wind and
Hydrokinetic Turbines, University of Washington, 2012
[3]. Peter J. Schubel and Richard J. Crossley, Wind Turbine Blade Design, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham, 2012
[4]. Chatmongkon Rattanapanudda, Horizontal axis wind turbine design using the blade element
momentum theory, Wayne State University, 2011
[5]. Bhagyashree suna, Design and Analysis of Laminated Composite Materials, National
Institute of Technology, Rourkela.