CHARACTERISATION OF INTER-LAMINAR SHEAR STRENGTH (ILSS) OF A RESIN INFUSED WIND TURBINE BLADE POLYMER COMPOSITE

Resin infusion technique is one of the common techniques in the industrial applications nowadays. This report discuss about characterisation of inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) of a wind turbine polymer composite blade that have been fabricate using this technique. In this project, two different infusion strategies, which are the infusion flow form leading edge to trailing edge and from root to tip, were used in the fabrication of the polymer composite wind turbine blade and to determine if the different infusion strategies will affect the ILSS of this blade, the three point bending test must be done. This project comprise of four main processes. First is the blade fabrication followed by the preparation of the samples needed. Next is the three point bending test done on the samples and finally the analysis of the data gathered from the test done to analyze the distribution of the ILSS from distribution from roof to tip, from leading edge to trailing edge also both upper and lower side of the blades. After the analysis, the result shows that different infusion strategies do affect the ILSS of the blade where Strategy 2 gives better result than Strategy 1, however there is no conclusive evidence that show exactly Strategy 2 is better, means that there are a lot of studies need to be done in order to prove the fact. The mapping of ILSS distribution on a single blade also done for both upper side and lower side for each blade.