Hybrid Spar Cap Wind Turbine Blade Structural Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wind turbine rotor blades require enhanced stiffness, buckling resistance, and strength to withstand operational loads, but existing pultruded spar caps, while cost-effective, may not provide sufficient structural integrity.
Innovation Solution
A hybrid pattern of pultrusion plates made from different fiber materials (e.g., glass and carbon fibers) is stacked and bonded with the blade shell using a resin infusion process to form a continuous, integral spar cap, offering improved structural properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If traditional pultruded composites are used for spar caps, then manufacturing cost is reduced and production is simplified, but structural integrity and strength are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining multiple pultrusion plates with different fiber orientations (0 degrees and 90 degrees) to create a hybrid spar cap structure. This composite approach provides enhanced structural integrity and strength while maintaining the manufacturing advantages of pultruded components, directly resolving the contradiction between strength requirements and structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The spar cap is segmented into multiple discrete pultrusion plates rather than using a single monolithic structure. These segmented plates are stacked and bonded together, allowing each plate to be manufactured independently using cost-effective pultrusion processes while the combined structure achieves the required strength and structural integrity.
2Reliability
If pultruded composites are used for spar caps, then material cost is reduced, but structural integrity may be insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The pultrusion plates are pre-manufactured with specific fiber orientations and dimensions before assembly. This preliminary action allows each component to be optimized independently for strength while maintaining ease of manufacture, and the pre-formed plates are then stacked and bonded to achieve the required structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
By using composite materials with different fiber orientations (0 and 90 degree plates), the structure achieves enhanced reliability and structural integrity. The composite construction allows each material layer to contribute its specific strength properties while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through standardized pultrusion processes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The hybrid pultrusion pattern enhances the structural integrity of wind turbine blades by providing increased stiffness and strength, effectively addressing the limitations of existing pultruded spar caps while maintaining economic benefits.
Implementation Method 1
bonding the stacked hybrid pattern with the blade shell materials to form an integral blade shell and bonded spar cap component
Implementation Method 2
the resin cures or undergoes polymerization
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 4~5
AI summary
A wind turbine blade shell component 22 is made by providing a plurality of first pultrusion plates 42 formed of a first fiber material 44, and a plurality of second pultrusion plates 46 formed of a second fiber material 48. The first and second pultrusion plates are stacked in a hybrid pattern 52 that includes a first section 41 containing a plurality of the first and second pultrusion plates having a length shorter than an entire length of a spar cap 20 for a wind turbine blade shell 21, and a core section 45 having a continuous unbroken length of the second fiber material corresponding to an entire length of the spar cap. The stacked hybrid pattern is arranged on blade shell materials in a mold 54 for the blade shell component 22 and is bonded with the blade shell materials 21 to form the blade shell component.