Abstract:Brazil stands out in the international scenario in the production of short-fiber pulp. Despite the great Brazilian biodiversity, that production is based on exotic Eucalyptus clones. In this sense, there may be great potential in the assessment of new sources of fibers from the Brazilian flora, including the Amazon. The present study aimed to assess the technical potential of the wood of Ochroma pyramidale (Malvaceae) for the production of kraft pulp. Four-year-old trees were harvested from a commercial forest… Show more
“…Figure 1 shows the palm's foliage, comprised of laminae, leaf sheaths, and the PMP, which consists of a firm outer layer (epidermis along the peripheral cortex) enclosing a porous cellular structure [5]. In comparison, BW (Ochroma pyramidale), Figure 2, is prevalent in Brazil's Amazon Region, but the world's largest producer is Ecuador [6,7]. Figure 2(c) shows the cross section of the BW trunk, which provides the BW used in WTBs.…”
The Miriti Palm (Mauritia flexuosa) grows abundantly in the Amazon Region of Brazil. The petiole (PMP) that supports the leaves, has a density of about one-half of Balsa wood (BW), which is used in the manufacture of wind turbine blades. A further possible advantage of PMP is that harvesting does not kill the palm tree, in contrast to the harvesting of BW. Because the mechanical properties of PMP have not been measured, we determined the shear and tensile properties of 16 samples of PMP and BW to allow a preliminary assessment of PMP as a possible material for blades. The absolute shear and tensile strengths for BW are higher, but specific properties (normalized by the density) are similar and can favour PMP. Direct substitution of BW by PMP would reduce the weight of a typical large blade by around 2%.
“…Figure 1 shows the palm's foliage, comprised of laminae, leaf sheaths, and the PMP, which consists of a firm outer layer (epidermis along the peripheral cortex) enclosing a porous cellular structure [5]. In comparison, BW (Ochroma pyramidale), Figure 2, is prevalent in Brazil's Amazon Region, but the world's largest producer is Ecuador [6,7]. Figure 2(c) shows the cross section of the BW trunk, which provides the BW used in WTBs.…”
The Miriti Palm (Mauritia flexuosa) grows abundantly in the Amazon Region of Brazil. The petiole (PMP) that supports the leaves, has a density of about one-half of Balsa wood (BW), which is used in the manufacture of wind turbine blades. A further possible advantage of PMP is that harvesting does not kill the palm tree, in contrast to the harvesting of BW. Because the mechanical properties of PMP have not been measured, we determined the shear and tensile properties of 16 samples of PMP and BW to allow a preliminary assessment of PMP as a possible material for blades. The absolute shear and tensile strengths for BW are higher, but specific properties (normalized by the density) are similar and can favour PMP. Direct substitution of BW by PMP would reduce the weight of a typical large blade by around 2%.
In many small wind turbine blades, the interior space between laminate skins is filled by a material core. The mechanical properties of the core are much less important than its density, which must be low to reduce the moment of inertia as high inertia increases both the starting time of the turbine and the gyroscopic loads on the blades. In this paper, we use, for the first time, the petiole of the miriti palm (PMP) as the core of four small blades, in order to analyze its effect on turbine starting performance. PMP is abundant in the Amazon region and harvesting it does not destroy the palm because the petiole regrows; therefore, harvesting is fully sustainable and may well have a major role in increasing the sustainability on wind turbine manufacturing. We consider the benefits of using the easily worked petiole for the core in terms of manufacturing, as demonstrated by the construction of a 0.598 m blade. PMP is less dense on average than alternative materials, such as expanded polystyrene and balsa wood. The starting performance is an important issue for small wind turbines. It is evaluated using a quasi-steady model, in which blade element momentum theory is coupled to Newton's Second Law. The low density of the small blade made using petiole of the miriti reduces the starting time by 10% when compared with expanded polystyrene and 42% when compared to balsa wood.
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