Manufacture Composite Wind Blades Right the First Time With Nearly Zero Physical Tests or Prototypes

制造业的每个分支都在数字化转弯，这不仅仅是一种时尚。数字解决方案正在为制造业带来直接和长期的利益和竞争优势，无论是用于测试更具成本效益或可持续的制造策略，还是针对产品开发本身的更可持续实践的目标。betway手机官网风能行业也不例外 - 实际上，要测试，原型和制造的零件的大尺寸使数字解决方案在确保可持续业务方面更加引人注目。那么，虚拟原型制作和模拟在复合材料中的使用如何减少错误并通过净零工艺提高首次右翼率？

虚拟原型制作是一种经过验证的端到端数字方法，可通过链接产品开发，制造运营和产品维护来实现可靠，加速，具有成本效益的工作流程。这是一种可持续的方法，减少了对物理测试和原型的需求，因此减少了产品开发和生产中涉及的材料废物和能源消耗。

Customer expectations are always on the rise, with demand for increasingly longer wind blades for example. Each time product design is changing or being stretched to its limits, simulation is the only way for engineers to make sure they are getting it right, for manufacturing and performance. For innovating new products, introducing new materials, or new manufacturing processes, engineers cannot rely on experience: that’s where Virtual Prototyping and more precisely composites manufacturing simulation software enters the equation. The software built on material science delivers predictive results, even for non-linear material behavior, so engineers can efficiently validate manufacturing processes and their parameters, all virtually.

虚拟原型制作应用于风能

In the wind energy sector,EUROS, a German wind blade design and manufacturing company (now part ofTPI composites) built one of the largest wind blades ever produced at the time: over 80 meters long. One of the reasons behind this success was their ability to develop the right composites manufacturing simulation processes.“Thanks to PAM-RTM, we can develop several infusion strategies in a short time for the manufacturing of different types of onshore and offshore wind turbine rotor blades,”然后解释说，当时的生产技术部主管 /德国欧洲欧元航空公司Mathias Marois。

Euros’ goal was to improve their vacuum infusion process for resin impregnation, paying special attention to the root area of the blade, as any defect in this area could jeopardize structural integrity. With an outer diameter of 4.4 meters and up to 160 plies of glass fabrics, mastering the composites manufacturing process of the root area is extremely challenging – especially in light of its very complex laminate definition. EUROS’ engineering team set an objective to achieve an infusion time of fewer than 90 minutes. A new infusion strategy had to be developed to reach good results in terms of product quality, process time, control, and repeatability of the process. At the end of the project, EUROS built the first offshore blade, 81.6 meters long and weighing 32.8 tons. They reached all their pre-defined goals for product quality, infusion time, resin consumption, and repeatability of the process.

Choosing the Right Simulation Vendor实现您的研发效率目标

You are currently managing Composites Manufacturing processes, using numerical simulation but you are not satisfied with your department’s efficiency? Here are six corners you need to turn to achieve R&D efficiency. Think about the following points of attention when choosing your simulation vendor:

1. Don’t select a vendor, select a partner

Navigating the Zero Test, Zero Prototype journey is not easy. It’s crucial to choose an experienced vendor that can also provide worthy advice and services, accompany the initial implementation of the software, help you with workflow improvement, deliver first-class software training, and provide great customer support along the way. It’s always a good idea to look at the company’s scientific knowledge, see which R&D projects they are involved in, what customers they work with within your industry segment, or how they could leverage the experience they gained in other industries.

2. Look for tools that help you manage the complexity of simulations across various fields of engineering

In an ideal software environment, iterations happen simultaneously across all physical domains and departments, overcoming the limitations of common but inefficient “assembly line” approaches. Composite manufacturing managers should exploit advanced digital technologies in such a way that their teams are able to combine 3D computer-aided design (CAD) models, virtual manufacturing, and assembly simulation with computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis models.

3.目标互操作性

The most effective toolchain seamlessly connects with CATIA Fibersim, then with all manufacturing processes from draping and thermoforming to Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), high-pressure RTM and Compression-RTM, resin Infusion and its variants, they use Sheet Molding Compound (SMC), curing and crystallization – all this using a single simulation software platform.

4.优先考虑将制造和产品性能联系起来的链接功能

Imagine the difference you can make when you empower your engineers to assess the geometrical distortions induced by the manufacturing process plus connect with most FEA simulation packages to evaluate product performance.

5. Seek reliable physics-based features such as fluid mechanical coupling

Adding this simulation capability to your toolchain is a mission-critical specificity for any team who wants to deliver precise, accurate simulation for Resin Transfer Molding. When resin is poured, engineers understand in detail not only how it flows but also how the part reacts to the manufacturing process - for example, how thickness may increase.

6. Consider opportunities for cross-industry know-how transfer

The wind sector stands to benefit a lot from knowledge transfer and cross-industry innovation, adopting proven best practices and technologies from other composite-heavy sectors like aerospace and automotive. Make sure you join an ecosystem that broadens your understanding of how others have already successfully brought new materials to market by innovating fully virtually.

综合开发最佳实践in Other Industries

To understand how OEMs outside of wind energy benefit from Virtual Prototyping and composite simulation, let’s look at two examples: In the automotive industry,Nissan正在寻找为碳纤维零件制造复杂复合材料制造工艺的方法，以生产更安全和更轻的车辆。使用虚拟原型制作，OEM成功地生产了高质量的组件，开发时间减少了50％，每单个成型的制造周期时间减少了80％。这使日产可以产生更复杂的零件形状，这转化为每辆车的平均重量减少80kg。

在航空业，Spirit Aerosystems, one of the world’s largest manufacturer of aerostructures, faced similar challenges as those encountered by wind blade manufacturers: getting the composite infusion processes right the first time.在最近的网络研讨会上, Conrad Jones, Senior Composite Development Engineer from Spirit AeroSystems, shared insights into a recent demonstrator project and explained how they collaborate with ESI to achieve Spirit’s product development goals:

“Mitigating all these risks, not only have we been able to deliver a successfully manufactured demonstrator on time, first time, cost and time savings were made through the use of the manufacturing process simulation. This 7-meter cover is not a standalone instance of our collaboration with ESI, we have been working with them over a number of years across multiple projects. They started out as small feature demonstrators. As our confidence in their ability to simulate infusion grew, we’ve relied on them to provide simulation on larger, more complex components up to 20 meters in size. Looking into the future, we will continue to use their experience in simulating the infusion process and are looking to include some of their other process simulations in our work such as cured component distortion. I look forward to our continuous collaboration with ESI […].”

超越模拟...

总而言之：使用复合材料模拟软件时的最终目标是通过一致性替代设计复杂性，以优化最终产品的性能，以便以财务可持续的方式自由地自由地追求创新而无需中断的风险。谈到可持续性：结果，您的组织可以在不同的环境中，早期和整个产品生命周期（以零发射，零废料方式）进行数字体验并验证其新风力涡轮机的制造，组装和行为。

要了解更多有关我们在ESI的方法制造模拟的方法，我邀请您参加访问我们专门的网络部分。

If you crave for more information, you can also find a引人入胜的技术论文清单crafted by our international expert team, many of which have been published in JEC Magazine.