Investigation of wind turbine blade materials' mechanical properties

Wind energy, which is limitless and clean source, takes first place in alternative energy sources because of its developments last several years. Beside research and development studies of wind turbines produced to transform wind energy to electrical energy increase everyday, design and materials of wind turbine blades lead researches carried out intensively at wind turbine constructions. In the study, stress ? strain characteristics of random short glass fiber mat reinforced polyester matrix and vinylester matrix composite materials produced by using hand lay up molding method were analyzed. Besides micro hardness values and micro structure were observed. Also a blade pattern whose chord length is 400 mm was produced.Increasing glass fiber reinforcement effected affirmatively tensile strength of polyester matrix composite materials and also vinilyester matrix composite materials. It was comprehend that mechanical properties of vinilyester matrix composite materials are better than polyester matrix composite materials. Also it was observed that stretch values of random short glass fiber mat and balsa reinforced composites were relatively higher than only random short glass fiber mat reinforced composites although tensile strength of glass fiber and balsa reinforced composites are lower than only glass fiber reinforced composites.