Researchers develop a polyurethane composite film to protect wind turbine blades

Wind turbines located at high altitudes sometimes experience reduced power generation efficiency due to ice forming on the blades. They may also be subject to erosion by solid particles. Now, scientists at the National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology at Zhengzhou University have developed a polyurethane film that may help.

The film is a flexible thermoplastic composite containing carbon nanotubes/graphene nanosheets produced by a spray hot pressing method. Due to its low filler content (2% by weight) it can be heated at 9V to
96.5°C, enabling rapid electric thermal de-icing. They say the film also has excellent resistance to attack by solid particles.

The film’s sandwich structure achieves a high tensile strength of 48.5MPa and an elongation at break of 795%. They believe this provides a simple way to protect wind turbine blades in extreme environments.