TPI Composites (TPI) has announced that it has collaborated with WindSTAR, a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, to design a composite manufacturing process based on a digital twin approach.
The project leveraged machine learning (ML) using big data to serve as the digital twin of the blade manufacturing process. This ML framework provides real-time feedback during fabrication, results in reduced defects, and enables more efficient production of wind blades versus the current high computational costs of the physics-based models. In the coming year, the WindSTAR research team plans to focus on scaling the technology to larger components with greater manufacturing complexity. The work will apply tools taken from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to find patterns in historical data and predict outcomes on full-scale wind blade components including blade shells. The WindSTAR Center is operated jointly by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the University of Texas Dallas and supported by 18 Industry members including TPI.
