Bamboo Laminated Composites for Wind Turbine Blade Material: a Review

Abstract

This review aims at highlighting on an attempt for exploring the feasibility of utilizing bamboo-based composite for wind turbine blade material. Turbine blades, which play an important role in wind turbine operation, demand uniformity and low variability in the material properties used. However, the current materials of turbine blade which mainly based on glass fibre-reinforced composites (GFRP) have some disadvantages as they tend to be abrasive and are difficult to dispose of at the end of their lifetime. Bamboo has a high potential for wind turbine blade material as it easily grows and the fibre was known to have superior mechanical properties in term of strength and toughness. With the increased emphasises on the need to biodegradable material, it is interesting to develop a bamboo-based composite for use in wind energy at lower cost. This paper discusses the current effort and key research challenges in the development of bamboo laminated composite for use in wind turbine blade. It evaluates the key parameters in processing of bamboo laminated composite in satisfying the requirement for wind energy application. Considering the fact that mechanical performances of natural fibre-reinforced composite are greatly influenced by environment conditions, it is necessary to understand the change of mechanical properties during service life of wind turbine.