Wind Turbine Blade Segment Balancing for Mass Moment Matching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Segmented wind turbine rotor blades often exhibit manufacturing variability leading to instability and uneven forces on the hub, causing undesirable vibrations and potential damage due to unbalanced mass moments.
Innovation Solution
A method for balancing rotor blade segments involves determining the mass moment of each segment, adding balancing ballast to segments with lower mass moments to match the highest mass moment, and connecting them to form balanced rotor blades, with optional fine-tuning at the installation site.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If rotor blade segments are manufactured using standard processes, then production efficiency is maintained, but manufacturing variability leads to mass moment deviations and blade imbalance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by determining the mass moment of each rotor blade segment before assembly and pre-balancing segments with lower mass moments by adding ballast. This advance preparation ensures that all segments have matched mass moments before being connected to form complete rotor blades, eliminating the need for time-consuming post-assembly balancing and ensuring consistent performance across all blades in the set.
2Reliability
If all rotor blade segments are pre-balanced to match mass moments, then blade stability and reduced vibrations are achieved, but additional time and resources are required for balancing operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs mass moment determination and ballast addition to segments with lower mass moments before assembly, which is more efficient than post-assembly balancing. By identifying and correcting mass moment deviations in individual segments beforehand, the method reduces the overall balancing time while ensuring blade stability and minimizing vibrations during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by selectively adding ballast only to specific segments that have lower mass moments, rather than uniformly balancing all segments. This targeted approach minimizes the additional time and resources required by focusing balancing efforts only where needed, while still achieving the overall goal of blade stability and reduced vibrations.
3Adaptability or versatility
If rotor blade segments with different mass moments are assembled, then assembly flexibility is maintained, but uneven forces on the hub and undesirable vibrations occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent determines the mass moment of each segment before assembly and adds ballast to segments with lower mass moments to match the highest mass moment in the set. This preliminary balancing ensures that all segments have consistent mass moments, eliminating uneven forces on the hub and undesirable vibrations while maintaining assembly flexibility, as segments can still be freely combined to form complete rotor blades.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention concerns a method of balancing rotor blade segments (132, 134) for a set of wind turbine rotor blades (110), the method comprising the steps: - providing a set of rotor blade segments (132, 134), the set of rotor blade segments (132, 134) comprising first rotor blade segments (132) and second rotor blade segments (134), - balancing the first rotor blade segments (132) comprising the sub-steps: -- determining a mass moment of each of the first rotor blade segments (132), -- determining a first rotor blade segment (132) having the highest mass moment amongst the first rotor blade segments (132), -- adding balancing ballast (138) to each of the remaining first rotor blade segments (132) such that each of the remaining first rotor blade segments (132) has a mass moment equal to the highest mass moment, - connecting each first rotor blade segment (132) to a second rotor blade segment (134) to form the set of wind turbine rotor blades (110).