Environmental Degradation of Glass Fiber Reinforced Nano-Composites with Carbon Nanotubes as Secondary Reinforcement in Polymer Matrix for Wind Turbine Blade Application

Abstract

The location of wind turbine is very crucial in order to capture maximum wind energy hence the common locations of wind farm are off-shore or on-shore wind farm. Generally blades of wind turbine are made up of Fiber Reinforced Composites. These wind farm are subjected to environmental conditions like humidity, salinity and temperature. The property of composites changes due to these environmental condition cause damage and degradation of mechanical properties of the composites. In this project carbon nanotubes are used as secondary reinforcement of glass fiber reinforced polymer to enhance the properties of wind turbine blade material. In this work hygrothermal loading and degradation of composite has been studied under different environmental condition. The result shows that 0.3% Carbon Nanotubes addition in Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer will give more strength but due to more moisture diffusion the degradation of this composite is more in tested hygrothermal loading.