Siemens tackles blade erosion

Siemens has unveiled a new solution for the protection of offshore wind turbine rotor blades against leading edge erosion.

The German company’s renewables and wind service divisions have worked on the Leading Edge Protection, a polymer solution that will be available for both new offshore turbines and machines already installed.

The protection layer is designed to absorb the impact energy from rain drops and other particles and thereby protect the leading edge from the fatigue damage that eventually leads to erosion.

The protecting solution is applied after the casting of the blade, so it can be applied without any implications on the manufacturing process. A so-called wet solution is used in the blade factories.

For blades that are already installed, a precast soft shell has been developed, as this is a more robust solution to apply in the field where the weather window is often not optimal, the company said in a statement.

A Siemens spokesman said: “The upgrade solution has been tested already with very promising lifetime test results and is currently undergoing final validation and testing for implementation.”

Siemens plans to have the retrofit solution on the market this year and will be also available for onshore turbines, the spokesman added.

The field solution will be implemented by Siemens wind service division, whereas its wind power and renewables division will apply the factory solution for new blade manufacturing.

The company said an extensive root cause analysis has been ongoing since 2015, which included a high number of blade inspections from different sites across the fleet.

In addition, a number of different potential materials for the leading edge protection were then subject to technical screening.

Image: Horns Rev 2 (Dong Energy)