Advances in Rotor Blades: Day 1 - 27/08/2025

8:00 - 8:15 Registration and Welcome Coffee

8:15 - 9:20 Workshop: Mastering Aeroelasticity in 100m+ Rotor Blades: Challenges, Models & Mitigation

As rotor blades exceed 100 meters, aeroelastic phenomena become increasingly critical. This workshop explores the interaction between aerodynamic loads and structural dynamics — and how to model, predict, and mitigate aeroelastic instabilities in ultra-long blades. Through realworld examples and simulation cases, participants will dive into the design trade-offs, modeling approaches, and testing strategies that define the next generation of large rotor blades.


Understanding Aeroelastic Effects in Very Long Blades:

  • Coupled aerodynamic and structural behaviour
  • Key failure modes: flutter, divergence, dynamic instabilities


Modeling Approaches and Tools:

  • Reduced-order vs. high-fidelity simulation
  • Validation methods: wind tunnel, full-scale testing,
  • operational data


Design Strategies to Address Aeroelastic Challenges:

  • Stiffness tailoring and material selection
  • Passive and active load control options
  • Impact of sweep, prebend, and structural damping
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Dr. Alexander Krimmer

Senior Materials Engineer
TPI Composites Germany GmbH

9:30 - 10:00 Scene Setting | What is a valuable rotor blade from an operator’s perspective?

  • Turbine and blade selection for new wind farm projects
  • Quality assurance and certification
  • Inspections and maintenance, condition and loads monitoring
  • Life time extension, dismantling and disposal
  • Precise evaluation of fatigue loads
  • Better agreement of test and field loads
  • Elliptical biaxial test excitation for better load coverage
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David Melcher

Research Associate Department Rotor Blades
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES

10:30 - 11:00 Validation of a fatigue design tool throughout full scale fatigue testing of rotor blades

Ulrike Kersten - Senior Engineer, TPI Composites Germany GmbH
  • Fatigue design concept
  • Damage heat maps
  • Test vs. prediction
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Ulrike Kersten

Senior Engineer
TPI Composites Germany GmbH

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break and Networking

11:30 - 12:00 Aeroelastic-Based Control for a Flexible Wind Turbine Blade and its Innovations

Dr. Jingwei Zhou - Project manager/ Senior researcher, Goldwind Frontier Technology (Yancheng) Co., Ltd
  • The principle of nonlinear bend–twist deformation in flexible blades;
  • Motivation for the development of an aeroelastic-based controller;
  • On-site experimental studies and validation;
  • Optimization with constraints and a holistic design approach.
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Dr. Jingwei Zhou

Project manager/ Senior researcher
Goldwind Frontier Technology (Yancheng) Co., Ltd

12:00 - 12:30 ONE-CLICK-BLADE – Parametrized Quick Optimization of Wind Blade Designs using FE and Analytical Methods

Bryant Neira Suarez - Co-Founder & Chief Engineer, VERMATIQ GmbH
  • Problem Description: Challenges in rotor blade design
  • Current Challenges: What prevents a fully parametrized blade design?
  • Solution: Rotor blade design analysis at just one click – including all computational design requirements according to DNV-ST-0376
  • Outlook: Blade Design Optimization using invertible neural networks


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Bryant Neira Suarez

Co-Founder & Chief Engineer
VERMATIQ GmbH

12:30 - 13:00 Hidden Loads in Transit: Transport-Induced Stresses on Rotor Blades transport aspects

  • Dynamic loads during road transport: poor infrastructure and vibrations
  • Ship transport and wave-induced blade oscillations
  • Unexpected stress patterns not covered by standard load calculations
  • Fatigue risk from repeated micro-impacts in transit
  • Implications for design margins, monitoring, and certification

13:00 - 14:30 Networking Luncheon

14:30 - 15:00 Blade segmentation: a game changer reality

  • Overcoming blades growth limitations
  • Robust and reliable solutions: advanced validation strategy
  • Representative case studies

15:00 - 15:45 Panel discussion: Beyond the Limits: Structural Uncertainty in Large Blade Design

As rotor blades continue to scale, current tools face limits. Experts discuss structural challenges, root design issues, and modeling gaps in ultra-large blades.

  • Structural mechanics: What we still don’t fully understand and structural modelling limitations for >100m blades
  • Growing blades, growing gaps: Scaling effects and hidden loads
  • Load assumptions vs. real-world behaviour
  • Blade root challenges: Complex stress states and material interfaces
  • Scaling effects and unforeseen interaction effects
  • Towards better prediction: Needs for validation, testing, and model improvement

15:45 - 16:15 Coffee Break and Networking

16:15 - 16:45 Design for Extreme Climates: Icing, Sand Erosion & Offshore Typhoons

  • Superhydrophobic coatings vs. embedded heating for de-icing
  • Erosion-resistant leading edges for desert & offshore applications
  • Structural reinforcement for high-frequency typhoon loads

16:45 - 17:15 Blade Leading Edge Erosion – a constant in the wind energy?

Florian Sayer - Business Development, Fraunhofer IFAM
  • Status Quo of Blade Leading Edge Erosion Research
  • Differences of erosion in testing and during operation
  • Outlook: A path to overcome leading edge erosion
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Florian Sayer

Business Development
Fraunhofer IFAM

17:15 - 17:30 Closing remarks

17:30 - 18:30 Workshop | Blade Root Failures in Aging Turbines — Repair Methodologies and Implications for Future Design

Edo Kuipers - Engineering Manager, We4Ce - TRES4

As wind turbines increase in age and size, structural issues at the blade root interface — particularly loose or failing bushings — are emerging as a critical reliability concern. This workshop explores a validated onsite blade root repair process and goes further by identifying design lessons that could inform next-generation blade root concepts.

  • Root Cause and Onsite Repair Methodology


Failure Diagnostics:

  • Systematic Root Cause Analysis: ultrasonic NDT, strength testing, damage patterns
  • Common failure modes in root bushings across turbine generations


Validated Repair Approach:

  • Application of the Re-FIT bushing and patented Front Infusion Technology (FIT)
  • Material interface behavior and bonding strategies


  • Design Considerations for Future Blade Roots


Re-thinking the Blade Root Interface:

  • Implications of recurring bushing failures for root geometry, materials, and joining concepts
  • Opportunities for modular, maintainable, or replaceable root sections
  • Designing for maintainability: How to build repairability into future blades


Material & Manufacturing Strategies:

  • Lessons from FIT for potential OEM integration in serial blade manufacturing
  • Hybrid bonding techniques and localized reinforcement zones


Certification & Testing Needs

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Edo Kuipers

Engineering Manager
We4Ce - TRES4

19:00 - 19:00 Evening Get-Together:

Join us for an informal evening get together at Emma am See where some refreshing drinks and a nice barbecue buffet will be waiting for you! You are not only visiting an architecturally awardwinning monument, but meeting your peers in a relaxed atmosphere, exchanging business cards. and reviewing the first conference day.