Experts on leading edge erosion of wind turbine blades discussed ways of solving the problems regarding one of the greatest challenges in the wind energy community.
The symposium took place online on 2 - 4 February 2021. The chairpersons of the symposium were Senior Researcher Dr. habil. Leon Mishnaevsky Jr. and Professor Charlotte Bay Hasager (both DTU Wind Energy) and the sessions of the symposium were devoted to the following subjects: characterization and evaluation of erosion, service conditions of wind turbines, prediction of erosion, coatings and protection, and environmental climate conditions and the possibilities of mitigation of erosion.
A number of presentations were devoted to engineered coatings, including metallic anti-erosion coatings, nanoparticles and fiber modified coatings. Especially two discussion events were considered interesting by the participants: “The gap between academic solutions and industrial applications, and how to deal with it” and “New solutions: which are most promising?” Both of the discussions were moderated by leading representatives of the industry. At the symposium, the participants were informed of the initiation of the new International Energy Agency (IEA) task: “Erosion of Wind Turbine Blades”, TCP Wind Task 46.
Charlotte Hasager, co-operating agent of the IEA Wind Task 46 “Erosion of Wind Turbine Blades” and of the project “EROSION” says: “It is very fruitful to meet and share state of the art knowledge among academia and industrial players on leading edge erosion which still is one of the greatest challenges in the wind energy community. The IEA Wind Task 46 collaboration is expected to enable better insight and faster solutions to the erosion challenges.”
Leon Mishnaevsky and Charlotte Hasager agree that the symposium and discussions went very well online, even though a personal meeting would have been preferred. Leon Mishnaevsky Jr., who is the coordinator of two projects, DURALEDGE and Maintanergy, comments on the success of the symposium: “The problem of leading edge erosion is critically important for the development of wind energy. It is also the area, where the collaboration between specialists of very different areas, meteorology, aerodynamics, materials science, computational modelling and artificial intelligence is especially important. The collaboration of specialists from different research areas set the path to the solving the leading edge erosion problem.” Ignacio Martí, Head of Division for Wind Energy Materials and Components at DTU Wind Energy adds: “Solving the blade erosion problem requires integration of approaches and concepts from different disciplines. Consequently, a centre on Leading Edge Erosion at DTU Wind Energy will be launched May 20 2021 with multi-disciplinary focus on Environment, Materials, Aerodynamics and Operation.”