Wind Turbine Rotor With Cable-Supported Thin Film Blades
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wind turbines face challenges in maximizing blade length, reducing weight, increasing rpm, and controlling blade pitch due to structural limitations and material constraints, leading to compromises in efficiency and design.
Innovation Solution
The use of a fluid turbine design where blades extend from a central hub to an annular rim supported by cable members, allowing for adjustable pitch and configuration, with a lightweight skin for deflection, enabling increased blade length and number, reduced weight, and efficient energy transfer from the faster rotating rim.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If blade length is increased to capture more wind energy, then power generation capability is improved, but blade weight and structural complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The blade is constructed with a thin film or skin structure supported by cable members, replacing traditional massive rigid blade structures. This allows the blade to maintain its aerodynamic shape while significantly reducing weight, enabling longer blades to be used without proportionally increasing structural mass.
Solution Approach 2:
The structural support function is extracted from the blade material itself and transferred to separate cable members. This separation allows the blade skin to be lightweight while the cables provide the necessary structural strength, resolving the contradiction between blade length and weight.
2Ease of manufacture
If blade pitch is fixed to simplify structure, then manufacturing ease is improved, but adaptability to different wind conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The blade pitch is made adjustable rather than fixed, allowing the blade angle to be dynamically changed in response to varying wind conditions. This enables the turbine to optimize its performance across different operating scenarios while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure through the use of adjustable mechanisms.
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
This design enhances efficiency by allowing longer blades, increased rpm, reduced noise, and variable pitch control, while minimizing material costs and structural issues, enabling better wind energy capture and power generation.
Implementation Method 1
when the wind or flowing water strikes the sheet members, the blades, rim and hub members rotate
Data Source
AI summary
A method for preparing a roofing membrane, and a membrane, having significantly less adhesive while retaining the same sealing properties. The reduction in the amount of adhesive significantly decreases the cost of raw materials needed for manufacturing the membrane and thus reduces the overall cost of the membrane itself.