Six of the tryptophans are in the β-propeller blades of the protein and appear to be important in maintaining blade structure; one tryptophan, of unknown function, is in the carboxy-terminal domain, and the remaining seven are arranged at the surface where two UVR8 monomers interact to form the dimer [ 7, 8] (Fig. 2a,b).
In the first stage of the research, the blade structure with a length of 1.5 m and profile NACA 2412 was modeled from composite fiber reinforced polymer, with 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 layers of fiber glass fabric and mat with epoxy resin as matrix.
The quasi-static and fatigue simulation results demonstrate the ability of the model to predict the evolution of damage in the critical regions of the blade structure, which is an important contribution and essential for increasing the accuracy of damage tolerance analyses and for certification of composite structures.
The blade structure comprises a shell of uniform thickness and a unidirectional reinforcement.
The study mainly focuses on the analysis of blade structure characteristics associated with the bending and twist deflection.
A network of additional hydrogen bonded interactions between strongly conserved residues at specific locations within the WD-repeat also maintains the integrity of blade structure.
This is the principle of the adaptive blades, where the incremental loads are reduced when, as the blade bends, the flexo-torsional modes of the blade structure produce a change in twist, and so in the angle of attack, modifying the lift force acting on the blade sections.
The thorough analysis results indicate that the aerodynamic shells debonding from the adhesive joints is the initial failure mechanism causing a progressive collapse of the blade structure.
Computational micromechanics was coupled within a continuum damage mechanics (CDM) framework, and implemented through a user-defined subroutine within commercial finite element software, for evaluating sub-critical damage evolution and stiffness degradation of the blade structure.
Numerical analysis results show that the designed blade structure was safe, and the value of stress and strain was low.
