Estimation and Prevention of Erosion on Off-Shore Wind Turbine Blades

The energy production of wind turbines depends strongly on a smooth leading edge on the wind turbine blades. The first objective is to develop realistic erosion test requirements for off-shore wind turbine blades, based on a climatology of hydrometeor size distributions and the probability of occurrence of situations with high erosion potential due to large droplets, graupel and hail. The second objective is to create a least erosion map for the North Sea which can be used to identify potential new wind farm sites that will exhibit low erosion. The third and final objective is to develop a new protective coating made of nano-diamonds for the leading edge on wind turbine blades. Project funding, Akademi aftalen University of Bergen, Norway.