Aerotrope provides expert consultancy to companies who need to investigate events around blade failure.
For a thorough analysis we can provide fractography at an optical and electron microscopy level.
Our engineers specialise in analysing such areas of interest, to build up a detailed set of explanations for the origin of material failure.
Through our collaboration with the University of Surrey, Aerotrope applies spectroscopic methods to the characterisation of composite materials:
Tof-SIMS (Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) is used for surface characterisation, for example to investigate potential contamination of bonded interfaces
Raman spectroscopy uses a range of lasers to analyse the chemical composition of fibres and matrices, for example to investigate curing issues or lightning strike effects.
We believe Aerotrope are, at the time of writing, the only independent consultants who integrate blade design engineering with fractographic analysis in-house. Clients benefit from this holistic approach to wind turbine blade design.
For any questions on the subject, please contact us.
Image copyright: Aerotrope Ltd.