With our industry-leading services, we bring confidence to the wind business by supporting the development of erosion systems.
Leading-edge erosion has become a major concern for wind park owners. High or unexpected maintenance costs are a major risk, especially for offshore wind parks. To make a big step towards more reliable blades, DNV organized two Joint Industry Projects to tackle this problem. Together with partners from the industry, DNV developed two Recommended Practices:
- DNV-RP-0171 Testing of rotor blade erosion protection systems
- DNV-RP-0573 Evaluation of erosion and delamination for leading edge protection systems of rotor blades.
Based on these publications four services were developed to support our clients with their erosion challenges.
Services for laboratories
Compliance of rain erosion test rig with DNV-RP-0171
DNV-RP-0171 specifies the erosion test rig in detail, with the aim to improve comparability between results from different test laboratories. The verification letter is highly valued by your customers because it confirms that your results are consistent and repeatable. It also provides the basis for the qualitative comparability of test results between different laboratories.
Laboratory approval for rain erosion test laboratories
DNV performs laboratory approvals based on DNV-SE-0436 under consideration of the requirements from ISO 17025. DNV will issue a laboratory approval certificate covering DNVRP-0171 which confirms the appropriate competence of the laboratory to conduct the related tests and improves the comparability of the erosion test results.
Services for LEP suppliers and OEMs
Type approvals for erosion protection systems
With a type approval, DNV confirms the suitability of the erosion protection system for its intended purpose and that a regular quality and production control is implemented. The type approval confirms a minimum erosion durability of three years for a simplified design loadcase. The type approval for erosion protection systems can be issued as a level 1 certificate based on non-degraded test specimens or as a level 2 certificate including long-term degradation according to ISO 12944-9 Annex B.
LEP performance evaluation based on DNV-RP-0573
This service builds upon the level 2 type approvals. However, instead of fulfilling a minimum set of requirements, the aim of this service is to extend the strength and durability evaluation for the LEP system considering more realistic load sets and manufacturing influences. The durability of an LEP system helps define the maintenance intervals. With an approval letter based on DNV-RP-0573, OEMs and operators get a suitable basis for defining their maintenance intervals. Based on the assessment, DNV will issue a verification letter confirming the strength and durability properties with related boundary conditions.