Presentations

Abstract

As carbon blades are getting longer and slenderer, they are subjected to higher loads and strains. This gives rise to fatigue of components which can limit operation time and increase maintenance costs. In this work, we investigate the fatigue behaviour of conductive meshes used in carbon blades Lightning Protection Systems (LPS) for wind turbine blades. The LPS relies on a conductive aluminium mesh embedded in the blade surface to divert lightning currents to the ground. These challenges make understanding fatigue induced damages to the mesh increasingly important for ensuring the safety and reliability of the LPS. We present fatigue tests combined with High Current (HC) tests for different mesh loading conditions.