Segmented Wind Turbine Blades With Continuous Load-Carrying Beams
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Manufacturing and transporting large wind turbine blades is challenging due to their increasing size, and assembling them efficiently while ensuring sufficient structural strength is difficult.
Innovation Solution
A method involving pre-manufacturing blade sections with outer recesses for a load-carrying beam, allowing alignment without the beam present, and subsequently arranging a fiber lay-up to form a continuous structural element, thereby avoiding material discontinuities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If wind turbine blades are manufactured section-wise to facilitate transportation, then the transportability and manufacturability of large blades are improved, but the structural integrity and strength of the blade are worsened due to the need to join multiple sections
Solution Approach 1:
The blade is divided into multiple blade sections that can be manufactured separately and transported individually. Each blade section contains an outer recess that will later receive a portion of the load-carrying beam, allowing the blade to be assembled from manageable segments while maintaining structural integrity through the continuous beam.
Solution Approach 2:
The outer recesses are pre-formed in each blade section during the initial manufacturing stage, before the load-carrying beam is installed. This preliminary preparation allows for easier alignment and assembly of the blade sections, as the recesses are already positioned and shaped to receive the beam portions.
2Ease of manufacture
If the load-carrying beam is assembled from multiple beam sections to match the segmented blade structure, then the assembly process is simplified, but material discontinuities are introduced that reduce structural integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The load-carrying beam extends continuously across the joint between blade sections in the longitudinal direction, while the blade sections themselves are segmented. This dimensional approach allows the beam to span the joint without being divided, maintaining material continuity while still enabling blade section segmentation for manufacturing and transport.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous load-carrying beam acts as an intermediary element that connects the segmented blade sections. By spanning across the joint between sections, the beam provides structural continuity and load transfer path, eliminating the need to divide the beam itself and avoiding material discontinuities at the joint.
3Ease of operation
If blade sections are aligned and joined before installing the load-carrying beam, then the alignment process is simplified, but the structural strength is reduced due to the absence of the beam during assembly
Solution Approach 1:
The outer recesses are pre-formed in each blade section before assembly, providing built-in alignment features that guide the positioning of sections relative to each other. This preliminary preparation simplifies the alignment process during assembly, as the recesses naturally position the sections correctly without requiring complex external alignment tools or procedures.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A method for manufacturing a wind turbine blade (3) comprising a load-carrying beam (18, 19) extending in a longitudinal direction (A) of the blade (3) and having a predetermined total length (L1), comprising: a) aligning (S2) at least two blade sections (8, 9) with each other, each blade section (8, 9) comprising a shell (11, 12) with an outer recess (34, 44) and the outer recesses (34, 44) forming in the aligned state an overall outer recess (45) having the predetermined total length (L1), and b) arranging (S3) a fiber lay-up (49) in the overall outer recess (45) for forming the load-carrying beam (18, 19). Thus, the load-carrying beam can be manufactured as a continuous structural element without piecing it together. Hence, discontinuities in the material of the load-carrying beam can be avoided. Therefore, a higher structural integrity of the blade is achieved.