Failure Analysis of Adhesively Bonded Wind Turbine Blade

Defective wind turbine blade subjected to combined loading was investigated and assessed. The present analysis focuses on studying an adhesively bonded composite wind turbine blade contains an edge crack at the bonding line. Finite element method was adopted for this purpose, and linear elastic fracture mechanics was used to estimate stress intensity factor (SIF). Moreover, shear and peel stresses at the defective bonding line were estimated and analyzed. Besides, the impact of the adhesive shear stiffness was considered as a parameter in the investigation. A significant increase in SIF as well as stresses were observed, and which is attributed to the defective bonding line.