Abstract

Wind energy plays a vital role in achieving net-zero targets, yet the durability of turbine blades is limited by leading-edge erosion caused by repetitive rain and particulate impacts. This talk presents our recent progress in understanding and designing for erosion resilience through mechanics-based and optimisation-driven approaches. I will first discuss the physical mechanisms underlying impact-induced degradation and how dynamic loading governs material response. Building on these insights, I will introduce a multi-material topology optimisation framework that tailors structural vibration characteristics through eigenfrequency optimisation under free vibration. The results demonstrate how optimised material distributions can tune natural frequencies and enhance dynamic robustness, offering pathways towards erosion-resistant and fatigue-resilient designs. The talk concludes with an outlook on extending this framework to transient impact conditions and data-driven acceleration for future resilient wind energy structures.