Presentations

Abstract

The wind energy industry has reached a stage where the first turbines, installed more than 30 years ago, are nearing the end of their service life. This makes recyclability a critical issue for the sustainable future of this renewable technology. Among turbine components, blades pose the greatest challenge due to their size, complex composite structures, and limited reuse options. Achieving a circular economy will require designing blades with recyclability in mind from the outset.  This objective, however, conflicts with material demands. Thermoset resins, widely used in blades, provide the strength and durability required for operation but are extremely difficult to recycle. Thermoplastics, while recyclable, generally lack sufficient performance. A promising solution lies in vitrimers, a new class of resins that combine the advantages of both families. Vitrimers incorporate dynamic covalent bonds that can rearrange under heat or catalysts, enabling recyclability and even self-healing behavior. These properties make them highly attractive for wind turbine applications, though challenges remain in optimizing their large-scale performance. Traditional resin synthesis and testing are slow and costly, whereas computational approaches can accelerate discovery by predicting the properties of new resins before they are synthesized.  Resins pose a unique modeling challenge because, unlike crystalline materials, they lack a fixed molecular structure. Each curing process produces a distinct, random network of cross-linked monomers, so accurate prediction of mechanical and thermal properties requires simulating the curing process itself.  We propose an integrated platform that leverages artificial intelligence to design and evaluate recyclable resins. By orchestrating molecular dynamics simulations of the curing process, the platform replicates essential physical and chemical processes, enabling reliable prediction of vitrimer performance. Such an approach could significantly reduce development time and cost, advancing sustainable materials for the next generation of wind turbine blades.