Composites

Developing Bigger and Better Blades with Fibersim™ Software

The wind energy industry is growing rapidly as a confluence of economic, political, and environmental factors has convinced just about everyone that wind should be part of a comprehensive energy solution. Given the potential for continued strong growth, manufacturers of composite wind turbine blades are looking for new engineering solutions that will enable them to sustain the current pace of demand and to develop high quality products quicker and at ever more competitive prices.

Indeed, the average size of a wind turbine keeps growing, requiring longer and lighter blades with more adapted profiles and better performing aerodynamics that must stand up to the rigors of high heat, extreme cold, gale force winds, sleet, bird strikes, and anything else Mother Nature can throw at it for 20 years or more.

To meet the challenge of producing bigger and better wind blades, the world’s leading wind energy firms are adopting Vistagy’s Fibersim composites engineering software. The Fibersim product suite supports all of the unique and complex design and manufacturing methodologies necessary to engineer innovative, durable and lightweight composite wind blades. It is integrated into the leading commercial CAD systems (CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Siemens NX and PTC Creo) to help you capture a truly complete and detailed digital product definition.

Fibersim provides an open and flexible design environment anchored around best-in-class composite engineering software, including a(n):

• Single, complete and detailed master model of the blade;
• Streamlined end-to-end process for moving from conceptual design to manufacturing;
• Automated creation of geometric and composites data from airfoil conceptual data;
• Integrated bidirectional design and analysis loop for faster structural optimization and more accurate design validation;
• Very accurate, design-based simulation of the manufacturing process;
• Direct link from design to the manufacturing floor that drives cutting, laser projection and automated deposition;
• Design-for-manufacturing process (DFM) approach;
• Reliable and rapid engineering change management process.

By implementing Fibersim and taking advantage of these features, users drastically reduce prototyping costs; cut material waste; ensure a quality design process; and enjoy the enhanced accuracy that results from a having a repeatable, high quality manufacturing process.

With the phenomenal pace of growth the wind industry is experiencing, turbine blade manufacturers must embrace the idea of a digital product development process and cutting edge solutions such as Fibersim so they can support increasing levels of automation and scale-up production to meet market demands.