A new hydraulic testing system will slam tidal turbine blades with repeated loads ten times faster than current methods while using a fraction of the energy. Fatigue testing—repeatedly stressing a structure until it breaks—is essential for certifying that composite blades can survive years of ocean forces. Existing hydraulic systems are too slow and energy-hungry to keep pace with the development cycles needed for renewable energy, aerospace, and infrastructure. The Structural Composites Research Facility (SCRF) will be the first in the world to use an ultra-efficient digital displacement regenerative pumping system, enabling faster academic research into fundamental engineering options for new materials. If successful, the facility will accelerate certification and deployment of tidal turbine blades, helping convert an under-exploited marine energy source into reliable power. Beyond renewables, the same capability will support fundamental research on composite materials for aerospace, automotive, and civil engineering—for example, monitoring fatigue in bridges and buildings under cyclic loading. Industry gains reduced design risk from better testing data and shorter product development times. The facility is primarily an engineering tool, not a discovery-driven project, but it will open new research opportunities on fundamental materials and process topics across high-value manufacturing sectors.
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It is proposed to establish an innovative Structural Composites Research Facility (SCRF) for faster fatigue or cyclic load testing of large structures. This will initially be focussed on fibre-reinforced composite material structures, such as stiff tidal turbine blades (e.g. fabricated from carbon fibre and glass fibre reinforced polymer resins). The facility will be the first of its kind in the world, and will use a brand new, ultra-efficient digital displacement regenerative pumping hydraulic system. For fatigue testing of tidal turbine blades, the novel hydraulic actuation system will only use 10-15% of the energy input required by conventional hydraulic testing systems, and will test structures 10 times faster than possible with existing hydraulic systems (test frequency increase from 0.1 Hz to 1 Hz). This will enable more and faster impact-led academic research into fundamental engineering options for new materials technology and accelerated evaluation of tidal turbine blades leading to more rapid certification and deployment to market. Such a capability is critical to the success of this emerging composite materials technology for renewable energy and will accelerate the conversion of available tidal marine energy, which is currently under-exploited at a time of increasing national demand for energy. Nationally, the facility will also underpin fundamental research in composite materials across all sectors, to be targeted at applications in high value manufacturing sectors such as aerospace, automotive, and civil engineering applications (e.g., structural health monitoring in bridges and buildings subject to ongoing fatigue under cyclic loading). Academics will benefit by access to a state-of-the art accelerated fatigue testing facility, opening new research opportunities on fundamental materials and process topics. Industry will benefit by reduced design risk from better testing data and by reduction of product testing time, within the product development cycle times needed in the renewable energy, aerospace, naval defence, marine and infrastructure sectors.
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