NSE Composites: Energy, Process and Utilities Case Study
Customer Company Size
SME
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- SIMULIA’s Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA)
- bladeMesher software
Tech Stack
- Finite Element Analysis
- Simulation Software
Implementation Scale
- Pilot projects
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Innovation Output
- Environmental Impact Reduction
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Applicable Industries
- Renewable Energy
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Digital Twin
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
NSE Composites is a Seattle-based company that has been providing composite engineering solutions to a variety of aerospace, wind, and other customers since 1996. NSE’s engineering team has broad experience with composite materials in aerospace structures, which enables it to bring an applied, results-oriented approach to a wide variety of composite product development projects. In addition, NSE is actively involved in composite structures R&D and the development of analysis software tools. The company offers services in the areas of design, analysis, testing, and structural certification.
The Challenge
NSE Composites was tasked with analyzing loads, stresses, and fatigue for an innovative, sweep-twist wind turbine blade design that is targeted to capture significantly more energy on light-windspeed sites. The basic physics and economics of wind turbine blades are relatively simple. Their power output is roughly proportional to the square of blade length. This relationship pushes designers to create increasingly longer blades for harvesting additional kilowatts. Secondly, as blades get longer, weight increases—by approximately the cube of the length—leading to higher raw material costs. This correlation sends designers in search of weight-efficient geometries that are strong and rigid enough to weather the increased loading inherent in longer blades.
The Solution
NSE Composites used SIMULIA’s Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) to validate the overall blade twisting behavior as well as buckling and fatigue. The software’s ongoing developments in simulating composites, crack generation, and fracture kept pace with the projects as they moved toward larger and more complex models. The software was able to handle composite properties and control material orientation. It could calculate blade-tip deflection (to avoid “tower strike”) and accurately predict both torsional response (including twist angle, which is key to load-shedding) and shear-compression buckling stability (associated with sweep-twist) of composite sandwich structures. An additional capability key to wind blade analysis is the extraction of accurate equivalent beam properties directly from a solid 3D FEM.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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