What motivates my research is that wind turbine blades that generate clean energy pose a huge
problem at the end of their life. I believe that it is our task to create the future wind turbine blades that can be structurally re-used after their lifetime as a blade and easily recycled at the end of the material life.
In my research I look at different circularity scenarios. The first scenario is lifetime extension of the
current blades. There is great potential in tackling erosion issues that lead to aerodynamic losses
throughout the lifetime, tedious and expensive repairs (especially offshore) and blade replacements.
By understanding erosion behaviour of the coated materials, better coatings and better operational
scripts can be adopted by industry thereby extending the lifetime of the blades.
The second scenario is to look at “design for resource efficiency and re-use”. How can we already
during the structural design phase of the blade take into account the fact that we want to re-use it in
structural applications after its blade lifetime and how can we take into account in the process
design phase how to minimise waste and energy consumption during manufacturing?
My current research portfolio is structured to realise this vision through four main topic areas:
- Understanding of erosion behaviour of the leading edge of wind turbine blades.
- Optimisation methodologies of the manufacturing process of thermoset composite parts.
- Understanding of the intimate contact development in laser assisted, automated fibre placement of thermoplastic composites.
- Understanding of interphase formation between thermoset-thermoplastic resins for advanced joining processes or toughening of resin systems
My research approach is based on both experimental data and predictive simulations (analytical, numerical and stochastic models) to fully understand the phenomena at play. I typically first start with the material characterisation necessary for the predictive models, then continue with the experiments to observe and understand the physical and mechanical phenomena taking place. Only after having a grasp of what is happening, I start with the predictive models, where I can use the experimental data to verify and validate the models. I believe only this combination will allow the full understanding of the phenomena at play.
If you are interested more in my research, please visit my publication page for my latest publications or feel free to contact me through the my contact page.