Segmented Preform Spar Cap for Wind Turbine Blades
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for constructing spar caps for wind turbine rotor blades face challenges in maintaining strength and structural integrity while avoiding wrinkles or bunching of fibers, especially in larger blades, and require improved transportation efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Innovation Solution
The use of multiple preform components with a swept shape, joined by a scarf joint, to form spar caps that follow the curvature of the rotor blade, integrated with shells and shear webs, allowing for easier assembly and transportation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If spar caps are constructed from composite fibrous materials to provide increased rotor blade strength, then the structural integrity is improved, but the materials wrinkle or bunch around the inside curve when formed into a swept shape
Solution Approach 1:
The spar cap is divided into multiple discrete preform components that can be individually manufactured and then assembled together. This segmentation allows each component to be formed without the wrinkling issues that occur when forming a single large swept-shaped component, while the assembled structure maintains the required strength and swept shape.
Solution Approach 2:
The preform components are manufactured in advance in a planar or lightly curved state before final assembly. This preliminary formation avoids the need to form the complete swept shape in a single complex operation, preventing fiber wrinkling while maintaining the capability to achieve the final swept configuration through controlled assembly.
2Productivity
If rotor blade size is increased to increase energy production, then the energy production is improved, but the transportation of spar caps becomes increasingly difficult
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing the spar cap into multiple smaller preform components, the invention enables transportation of manageable segments rather than a single large component. These segments can be transported more easily and then assembled on-site to form the complete spar cap for large rotor blades, thus enabling increased blade size without compromising transportation feasibility.
3Strength
If spar cap size is increased to match larger rotor blades, then the structural strength is improved, but the transportation and handling difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The large spar cap required for structural strength in bigger blades is segmented into multiple smaller preform components. Each component maintains the necessary local strength characteristics while being small enough for easier transportation and handling. The assembly process reconstructs the full-strength configuration through precise joining of these segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from transporting a single large three-dimensional spar cap to transporting multiple smaller flat or lightly curved preform components. This dimensional simplification of individual components reduces transportation complexity while the assembly process restores the full three-dimensional structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A spar cap for a wind turbine rotor blade. The spar cap may include multiple preform components. The multiple preform components may be planar sheets having a swept shape with a first end and a second end. The multiple preform components may be joined by mating the first end of a first preform component to the second end of a next preform component, forming the spar cap.