Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Optimizing Self-Healing Wind Turbine Blades Utilizing Dicyclopentadiene Infused Vascular Networks, Giovanni Lewinski

Theses and Dissertations

Self-healing wind turbine blades can reduce costs associated with maintenance, repair, and energy compensation. Self-healing is the ability to sustain and recover from damage autonomously. The self-healing presented in this paper uses the reaction of two agents Dicyclopentadiene, DCPD, and Grubbs’ first-generation catalyst, henceforward known as a catalyst to fuel this recovery. DCPD is housed as a liquid isolated from the catalyst until a damaging event occurs, causing the two agents to mix and solidify to form the thermoset Polydicyclopentadiene, PDCPD. We discuss the efforts made to optimize the self-healing properties of wind turbine blades and provide new systems to …