1. Introduction
Wind turbines have begun moving from land installations to offshore locations in an effort to harness
the faster and steadier winds that exist there. When moving turbines offshore, the trend is to increase the
rotor diameter so that more of this steady wind can be captured, ultimately decreasing the cost of energy.
This increase in diameter creates design issues for many of the components, with the blade length being
the first parameter affected. Little information is publically available on the structural design process of
multi-megawatt blades since it is kept confidential by most manufacturers. Thus, there is a need for large
scale reference blades that are openly available for research projects. In this study, a detailed blade model
was developed and analyzed with respect to industry standard failure criteria to specify the structural
components and the composite ply layups of the blade.