Ensayos de álabes de aerogeneradores de baja potencia construidos con scrap de tubos de Polietileno de Alta Densidad (PEAD)

Abstract

One of the great difficulties in the construction of low power wind turbines is the design and construction of their blades. In this work a High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipe material was tested, similar to that used for the construction of blades and other parts of a small wind turbine installed in the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) Campus - Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mechanical tensile tests were carried out under ASTM D638-14 standard in tangential and axial specimens extracted from the tube (HDPE), in order to be able to contrast these results with bibliographic data. The tested tube was extruded following the Argentine Institute for Standardization and Certification (IRAM) standards, with dimensions of 315 mm in diameter and 12.1 mm in thickness. Twelve test tubes, 6 Tangential and 6 Axial were tested. Comparing the average values of the tests in tangential and axial pieces, the average maximum stresses were similar in both types of test pieces (23 MPa). However, in the elongation at break analysis, the tests in tangential and axial specimens, gave values of 320.3% and 37.4% respectively. From the analysis of the areas under the curves, a great variability of results in the tenacity of the material was also deduced, since tangential samples the results gave an average of tenacity of 8475.8 MPa and in axial 973.1 MPa. These values serve to analyze the potential of these tubes for the construction of small wind turbine blades.