This was the hot topic on yesterday’s Online Blade Failures Seminar where Bladena together with 27 wind turbine owner companies and CORTIR partners all shared their point of view. As more and more data show blade failures coming from the field, especially on larger blades, the topic of blade failures is more important than ever.  On the 26th of November at Bladena’s Online CORTIR Blade Failure Seminar, a total of 27 different WTO-companies were present. When damages and failures occur on wind turbine blades, it is semi-unexcepted and often outside the operational budget. The associated costs for repair actions often end up as a dispute between WTOs, OEMs and Insurance companies, and risk will increase with future up-scaling of blades. In the EUDP funded project “Cost and Risk Tool for Interim and Preventive Repair” (CORTIR) the whole value chain in the wind industry is brought together to work on a new beneficial strategy to reduce LCoE. Birgit Junker, Blade Specialist from RWE and partner in the CORTIR project states: “We are seeing increasing challenges when it comes to blade failures in the field. To make drastic change the failures need to be addressed by all the players in the wind industry. The CORTIR Project is a platform where the different players can contribute with input and collaborate to bringdown LCoE”. Chaired by Bladena and with contributions from Birgit Junker from RWE, Daniel Liu from WoodMac, Nicolas Quievy from Engie, Fransisco Garcia Lopez from Enel, Hans Møller from EWII and Michael Pedersen from Ørsted, the seminar was taken to new heights. Daniel Liu from WoodMac presented statistics of the above description failure modes (current + trends).  Illustration of transition zone damages in a complex load scenario by Bladena and Kirt x Thomsen. A presentation about the availability of field data and methods to apply Asset Integrity Management systems was done by Francisco Garcia Lopez from ENEL. Along with this he explained how an Asset Integrity Management System can lead to an Optimized Risk Based Maintenance.
In the afternoon session, the subject was National and International (IECRE) regulations and how to apply them as a WTO. Hans Møller from EWII and Michael Pedersen from Ørsted took part of the discussion on how they as a WTO fulfill the regulations. The annual inspection e.g. of the lightning system and the obligation to report damages were the key topics. The seminar ended with a final discussion and followed with a roundup by Find Mølholt Jensen. The goal of the Seminar and the CORTIR Project is to support the WTO’s in the decision-making process with regards to criticality of the damages they observe in the field and how to minimize the risk and O&M cost. To do so it is important to understand where the damages takes place and why the damages occur. The Cost and Risk Tool (CAR-Tool), developed through the CORTIR project, serves this purpose as it consists of fracture mechanics crack propagation models as well as cost and risk models. The next CORTIR seminar will be in Spring 2021 where the central scope of this seminar is Damage Tolerance in Blades. The CORTIR project is supported by the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP), which is administered by the Danish Energy Agency (EUDP-program). For further information please visit www.bladena.com, https://cortirproject.weebly.com, and/or contact CORTIR Project Manager CTO Find Mølholt Jensen +45 53700276 fmj@bladena.com. Comments are closed.
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