Residual strength assessment of wind turbine rotor blade composites under combined effects of natural aging and fatigue loads

In this paper, the combined effects of natural aging and fatigue loads are considered to assess the residual strength of wind turbine rotor blade composites under actual service environments. Firstly, a comprehensive environmental factor (CEF) methodology is adopted to quantify the combined effects of environmental factors on residual strength. Meanwhile, the artificial accelerated aging test data are used to determine the weight coefficients of the CEF. Subsequently, a two-variable function is presented to characterize the relationship among residual strength, aging time and the CEF. The natural aging test data are utilized to estimate the unknown parameters of the two-variable function. Finally, the combined effects of natural aging and fatigue loads are considered, and a residual strength model is proposed to analyze the strength degradation behaviors of the wind turbine rotor blade composites. The results indicate that fatigue loads have negative effect on the residual strength, while natural aging has both positive and negative effects on the residual strength.