Rain erosion wreaking havoc on wind turbine blades stands tall among the toughest engineering challenges to conquer. Tackling this tempestuous problem head-on, R&D Test Systems, hailing from Denmark, emerges as the pioneer behind cutting-edge rain erosion test rigs, extensively employed worldwide to meet the exacting demands of both the wind and aerospace industries. Niels Pedersen, the esteemed Key Account Manager at R&D Test Systems, takes Uptime listeners on an expedition through the labyrinth of rain erosion quandaries, offering a breakdown of the inner workings of the erosion test equipment and glimpses into the forthcoming generation of rain erosion weaponry that will soon find its rightful place at DTU - a leap forward into an even more resilient future.



R&D Test Systems - https://www.rd-as.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com











Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 



R&D Test Systems



Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and today we're talking about a major issue facing the wind industry. Leading edge erosion. Leading edge erosion is, is damaged, caused by leading edges of wind turbine blades that hit raindrops, hail, dust, sand, all kinds of particles.



It can lead to a decrease in efficiency, power output, and even premature failure of blades. Engineers and scientists are working on new materials to mitigate leading edge erosion, but they need to be thoroughly tested before being used on a wind turbine. That's where R&D Test Systems come in. R&D Test Systems builds the whirling arm rain erosion test equipment that many of you have seen on LinkedIn and YouTube.



Now, this test equipment simulates raindrops impacting a wind turbine blade or aircraft up to 170 meters per second. That's about 600 kilometers per hour. That's really fast. To discuss this remarkable piece of equipment we have Niels Pedersen, Key Account Manager with R&D Test Systems. Niels, welcome to the program.



Niels Pedersen: Thank you, Allen. 



Allen Hall: So leading edge erosion is this massive issue, which affects pretty much every operator in the world. And the, the, the one complaint is there's, it is just everywhere and we don't know what to do about it. Right? That seems to be the big concern is that as they don't know where to go about it and there's, there seems to be.



All kinds of solutions in the marketplace at the moment. From coatings to tapes to these new shell devices. It's really hard to discern what is working at the moment. 



Niels Pedersen: Yeah. Yeah, it really is. And there's, we see a lot of of coding manufacturers, of tape manufacturers of poly European shield manufacturers tapping into this business because it is such a massive problem.



And, and the business case is essentially really good. If you can solve this problem, then you have a, a really great business case. That is, that is the key thing that, that this is just increasing the, the cost of energy that we need to go and do repairs on the blades offshore especially, and currently you need to do repairs every eight year or something like that.



Depending on the location of the site. 



Allen Hall: Yeah. That, that is key, right? Is that as the, the tip speeds have increased, the blades get longer, there's, there is more and more leading edge erosion and, you know, numbers vary,