Ferriawan Yudhanto, Cahyo Budiyantoro, Mochamad Arif Irfa’i, Afri Arief Wicaksono, Ari Febriansyah
This study evaluates the mechanical performance and thermal stability of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) with polyester and epoxy resin as polymer matrix for flexible skin applications in wind turbine blades. The composites were fabricated using the Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM) technique and tested through twist-tensile (ASTM D638) at angles of 0°, 20°, 40°, and 60°. Three-point bending tests (ASTM D790) were performed using 60 mm and 96 mm span configurations. The tensile test results revealed that GFRP-epoxy achieved a maximum strength of 334 MPa (0°), surpassing that GFRP-polyester, which exhibited reduced performance due to less optimal interfacial bonding. In the bending tests, GFRP-epoxy demonstrated superior performance with a strength of 519 MPa, while GFRP-polyester showed a significant reduction, particularly in the short span bending. Failure modes analysis using SEM revealed that GFRP-epoxy attained good fiber wetting and strong interfacial bonding. The GFRP-polyester composites were dominated by fiber pull-out, delamination, and debonding. The thermal stability of both is in the range 300℃ to 340℃. These findings confirm that GFRP-epoxy composite is more suitable as the primary matrix for a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) blade due to its superior structural and thermal stability. In contrast, GFRP-polyester laminated composite is more appropriate for nonstructural components with lower load demands. © 2025 The authors. This article is published by IIETA and is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Department of Automotive Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, 55183, Indonesia; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, 55183, Indonesia; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Jawa Timur, Surabaya, 60231, Indonesia
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