Braided Composite Sock Wind Turbine Blade Stiffness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Increasing the size of wind turbine blades to enhance electricity production poses design, engineering, and logistical challenges, while maintaining structural integrity and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A wind turbine blade design featuring mandrels covered with socks made of braided fibers with varying stiffness, utilizing zero-degree and bias-angle fibers of different materials, and a manufacturing method involving multiple layers of composite materials to achieve tailored stiffness and reduced weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the size of wind turbine blades is increased to enhance electricity production, then power generation efficiency is improved, but structural integrity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying the stiffness of the sock across different sections of the blade. The sock includes regions of different stiffness to match the varying structural requirements along the blade length, providing enhanced strength where needed while maintaining overall blade flexibility for power generation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials consisting of fibers embedded in a matrix material to form the sock. This composite structure provides high strength-to-weight ratio, enabling the blade to achieve both increased size for power generation and maintained structural integrity through the reinforcing fiber-matrix combination
2Productivity
If the size of wind turbine blades is increased to enhance electricity production, then power generation efficiency is improved, but blade weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite materials with fibers in a matrix to create a lightweight yet strong blade structure. The composite construction allows the blade to be larger for increased power generation while maintaining reduced weight through the inherent lightness and strength properties of fiber-reinforced composites
Solution Approach 2:
The varying stiffness design allows the blade to have optimized material distribution - stronger and potentially heavier sections only where structurally necessary, while other sections remain lighter, achieving overall weight reduction despite increased blade size
3Ease of manufacture
If uniform stiffness is used throughout the blade, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but structural efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements varying stiffness through the sock design, where different sections have different stiffness characteristics. This allows the blade to be optimized for power generation efficiency with appropriate flexibility and strength at each location, while the sock construction method maintains reasonable manufacturing simplicity through a standardized fabrication approach
Data Source
AI summary
A wind turbine blade includes at least one mandrel and a sock that covers the at least one mandrel. The sock includes a plurality of braided fibers within a matrix material. The fibers can be made of different materials. Also, stiffness of the sock can vary across the wind turbine blade. A method of manufacturing the wind turbine blade is also disclosed.