A novel single actuator test setup for combined loading of wind turbine rotor blade sub-components

Wind turbine rotor blade sub-component testing (SCT) confines the structural validation to design critical blade parts. SCT can replicate the stress state of the blade structure closer to field conditions than full-scale blade testing. Hence sub-component testing could augment towards increasing the reliability of rotor blade structures. This work presents a novel single actuator test setup for rotor blade sub-components under combined loading. Two different configurations, elaborated for an inboard and an outboard trailing edge  sub-component, are compared to assess the scalability. The impact of the structural and geometric sub-component properties, as e. g. the ratio between bending and axial stiffness, on the critical test rig components is identified as a scaling design driver.