Articulated Sail Panels With Reinforcing Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sails for large ships are unable to withstand forces exceeding 100 tons due to limitations in material strength and manufacturing processes, which restrict their size and durability.
Innovation Solution
A sail design featuring a set of panels with elongated reinforcing elements and a limited number of mechanical connections, allowing for efficient force transmission and flexible positioning, using materials like fabric, composite materials, or metal, with guide rails and sliding carriages for panel movement, enabling the sail to withstand high stresses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If sails are made from thin membranes using conventional manufacturing processes, then the sails can be produced with current technology, but they cannot withstand forces exceeding 50-100 tonnes
Solution Approach 1:
The sail is divided into multiple panels that can be manufactured separately using conventional processes and then assembled together. This allows the sail to achieve larger dimensions and higher force resistance while remaining manufacturable with existing technology.
Solution Approach 2:
The sail uses composite construction combining fabric panels with rigid reinforcing elements (such as aluminum extrusions or carbon fiber beams) to create a structure that can withstand forces of 100 tonnes or more while being manufacturable with current industrial capabilities.
2Power
If sails are made larger to increase aerodynamic efficiency, then the return on investment of the rigging is maximized, but the forces developed exceed the承受能力 of available sail materials
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the large sail into multiple smaller panels connected by rigid joints, the structure can distribute and handle the high aerodynamic forces generated by large surface area, enabling sails of 1000 m² or more to be practically implemented.
Solution Approach 2:
The sail employs different material properties in different locations - flexible fabric in the membrane areas for aerodynamic efficiency, and rigid reinforcing elements in the structural areas for strength - allowing the sail to simultaneously achieve high power and sufficient strength.
3Ease of manufacture
If sails are made from sewn and/or glued fabric widths, then the sails can be constructed with available materials, but the process is very expensive and has natural limitations for large sails
Solution Approach 1:
The sail is constructed from multiple modular panels that can be manufactured to standard sizes using conventional fabric cutting and assembly processes, then combined to create very large sails. This modular approach overcomes the size limitations of single-piece fabric construction.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines fabric panels with rigid reinforcing structures to create a hybrid construction that maintains the ease of fabric manufacturing while enabling much larger sail areas than conventional fabric-only construction.
4Area of stationary object
If sails are made from molded sub-assemblies assembled by sewing and/or gluing, then intermediate sizes can be achieved, but resistance to very significant forces is still insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The sail uses composite construction combining fabric panels with rigid reinforcing elements (such as aluminum extrusions or carbon fiber beams) to create a structure that can withstand forces of 100 tonnes or more, significantly exceeding the strength of conventional molded or sewn constructions.
Solution Approach 2:
By dividing the sail into rigidly connected panels with reinforced spars and crossbars, the structure can distribute and handle very high forces across multiple load paths, achieving strength sufficient for forces of 100 tonnes or more.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates in particular to a sail (4) which comprises at least three sides, namely two longitudinal sides referred to as the "luff" (40) and the "leech" (41), and a lower transverse side referred to as the "foot" (42), which sail is made up of a collection of panels (5) having transverse edges (50, 51) parallel to the said foot (42) and longitudinal edges (52, 53) parallel to the said luff (40) and to the said leech (41), each panel (5) being articulated to the adjacent panel (5sup, 5inf) about an axis (X–X') parallel to the said foot (42), characterized in that each of the panels (5) comprises reinforcing elements (6, 6') distributed in the following two groups: – a first group in which they run parallel and close to the said transverse edges (50, 51); – a second group in which they run parallel and close to the longitudinal edges (52, 53) of said panel; and in that they are connected in twos by connecting pieces (7) in the continuation of the reinforcing elements (6') of the said second group so that the loads absorbed by the reinforcing elements (6') are transmitted longitudinally from one panel (5) to the other.