Effect of shallow-angled skins on the structural performance of the large-scale wind turbine blade

Two shallow-angled symmetric and asymmetric skins, with off-axis fiber angles of less than 45°, were proposed and employed to a 5 MW wind turbine blade. For the symmetric configuration, shallow-angled skins were applied to both the pressure and suction sides of the blade, while, for the asymmetric configuration, only the pressure side was implemented with a shallow-angled skin, keeping the conventional 45-degree-angled skin for the suction side. The blade tip deflection, modal frequencies, buckling stability, and failure index were computed for off-axis fiber angles of 45°, 35°, and 25°. The use of shallow-angled skins improved blade bending stiffness and strength. The buckling resistance decreased for symmetric skins and remained unchanged for asymmetric skins; the former case was compensated for by increasing the core thickness. For both skin configurations, a reduction in the blade failure index of up to 18% and 38%, and mass reductions of up to 8% and 13% were demonstrated for the 35° and 25° shallow-angled skins, respectively.