Utilization of albizia wood (Albizia Falcata) and ramie fibers as wind turbine propeller modification of NACA 4415 standard airfoil

Ramie fibers and albizia wood, which are abundantly available in Indonesia, were used in fabricating hybrid sandwich composite for wind turbine propeller. A prototype was fabricated by modification of NACA 4415 standard airfoil, intended for low speed wind and environmental friendly operations. Hand lay-up method was applied for fabrication of this hybrid composite with one and two layers of ramie fiber. Mean volume fiber fraction (vf) of one-layer and two-layer composite are 47,12% and 44,82%, respectively. The highest measured bending stress is 30.88 MPa for two-layer composite with modulus of elasticity 2.02 GPa and bending strain 1,795%. Microstructure of this hybrid composite is unchanged significantly after 5.5 months operation. With ultimate simplicity and low manufacturing cost, hand lay-up method is suitable for small scale production.