Perspective for Fibre-Hybrid Composites in Wind

Abstract: Increasing the efficiency of wind turbines will be vital for the wind energy sector tocontinue growing. The drive for increased efficiency is pushing turbine manufacturers to shiftfrom glass fibre composite blades towards carbon/glass fibre-hybrid composite blades. This shiftbrings significant challenges in terms of optimising the design and understanding the failure ofthese new blade materials. This review therefore surveys the literature on fibre-hybrid composites,with an emphasis on aspects that are relevant for turbine blade materials. The literature on tensile,flexural, compressive, and fatigue performance is critically assessed and areas for future research areidentified. Numerical simulations of fibre-hybrid composites have reached a reasonable maturityfor tensile failure, but significant progress is required for flexural, compressive, and fatigue failure.Fatigue failure of fibre-hybrid composites in particular, requires more careful attention from both
a modelling and experimental point of view.