<font size="1" face="MyriadPro-Regular"><font size="1" face="MyriadPro-Regular"><p align="left">Composites dominate the wind turbine blade market because of their superior fatigue characteristics and stiffnessto-</p><p align="left">weight ratio, ability to fabricate complex geometries and potential for aeroelastic tailoring. The outermost section</p><p align="left">of the blade is typically a gelcoat layer, which provides a smooth surface to enhance aerodynamic properties. Next</p><p align="left">typically comes a layer consisting of Nexus, a soft material that provides a relatively smooth but absorbent surface on</p><p align="left">which to mount the gelcoat. The next layer is a double-bias stack of composite plies made by twisting unidirectional</p><p align="left">fibers around a core at 45 degrees in both directions to make a torsion tube. At the blade trailing edge, the doublebias</p><p align="left">laminate splits into two layers to accommodate a core material such as balsa, foam or honeycomb. The corematerial</p>

laminate augments the buckling strength of the trailing edge of the blade.</p></font></font>