High-Silicon Nodular Cast Iron for Lightweight Optimized Wind Energy Components

Abstract

The increasing need for lighter components for wind energy application led to an increasing afford in the foundries to develop high-strength nodular cast iron materials (GJS) offering both high strength and high ductility. High-silicon nodular cast iron is one of those developments. Nevertheless, until now, to the best of our knowledge, no real characterization of these materials in terms of cyclic material behavior has been done. Thus, in this paper, one of the high-silicon nodular cast iron grades, EN-GJS-500-14, was investigated to determine the technological, statistical, and geometrical size effects for a proper component design a lifetime assessment.