Wind turbine blade leading edge erosion is an important issue for the wind energy industry.

Energy Technology Centre and the National Physical Laboratory are undertaking a feasibility study to investigate the use of state of the art measurement techniques to measure the real-time erosion of test samples in a rain erosion test rig.

A candidate technique will be selected and trialled on an operational rain erosion test rig at Energy Technology Centre for evaluation and demonstration.

If successful, the measurement technique will be used in testing, research and development, supporting the accelerated technology development of blade leading edge erosion protection systems, leading to improved efficiency, reliability and maintainability of wind turbines.