Work

Design and Performance Evaluation of a Flexible Lightweight Heating Blanket for Wind Turbine Blade Reinforcement

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The curing quality of epoxy resin at wind turbine blade joint seams critically affects blade integrity and service reliability, yet conventional metallic heating systems often suffer from poor temperature uniformity, limited flexibility, and slow thermal response. In this study, a flexible and lightweight heating blanket based on carbon nanotube (CNT) electrothermal film was developed for blade reinforcement and in situ curing applications. The device employs a multilayer composite architecture consisting of a CNT heating layer, a nano-aerogel thermal insulation layer, a thermoplastic polyurethane electrical insulation layer, and a silicone-coated glass fiber protective layer, together with an intelligent temperature control system. The resulting blanket, with a total thickness of 3.85 mm, exhibited rapid and stable heating performance, increasing from 25 to 120 °C within 8 min. Under resin-curing conditions, it achieved an initial heating rate of 7.2 °C min−1 and a temperature uniformity of ±2.6 °C, markedly outperforming a conventional Ni@Cr alloy heating blanket. Accelerated aging tests further demonstrated stable electrothermal performance under the tested condition. Those results indicate that the proposed CNT-based heating blanket provides an efficient and reliable thermal management strategy for large curved composite structures.

Source: Applied Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/app16136497