Wind Turbine Cable Guide Ladder Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cable guidance systems for wind turbines face challenges in reliably guiding cables from a stationary rotor hub to a rotatable rotor blade without hindering the blade's pitching motion and ensuring a stable energy supply to electrical components.
Innovation Solution
A cable guide device featuring a cable ladder connected elastically to the rotor hub's bracket and fixedly to the rotor blade's base, utilizing parallel steel cables with rungs and secure fastening mechanisms to accommodate the rotor blade's rotational movement, ensuring reliable and gentle cable guidance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a drag chain system is used for cable guidance, then cables can be guided from rotor hub to rotor blade, but the system becomes complex and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The cable guide is segmented into multiple cable guide elements arranged in series, where each element handles a portion of the cable routing. This segmentation allows the system to accommodate rotational movement while maintaining a simple, modular structure that avoids the complexity of traditional drag chain systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable guide elements are arranged in a spatial configuration that utilizes three-dimensional space between the rotor hub and rotor blade. By distributing cables across multiple elements in space rather than confining them to a single linear path, the system achieves reliable cable guidance without requiring complex mechanical structures.
2Reliability
If cables are guided rigidly from rotor hub to rotor blade, then energy supply is stable, but rotor blade pitching motion is hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The cable guide elements are designed with flexible connections that allow dynamic adjustment during rotor blade pitching. The elements can pivot and flex to accommodate the changing geometry as the blade rotates through its pitch range, ensuring continuous energy supply without constraining the pitching motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable guide utilizes flexible cable routing through multiple elements rather than rigid conduits. This flexibility allows the cable path to adapt to the changing positions of the rotor blade during pitching, maintaining stable energy supply while enabling full range of motion.
3Device complexity
If simple cable routing is used, then device complexity is reduced, but cables are damaged during rotor blade rotation
Solution Approach 1:
The cable route is divided into multiple segments through separate cable guide elements, each protecting a portion of the cable path. This segmentation prevents cable damage by distributing mechanical stresses across multiple points rather than concentrating them in a single simple routing path.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable guide elements are positioned and configured to provide protective support for cables before damage can occur during rotor blade rotation. The elements act as cushions that absorb and distribute mechanical stresses, preventing cable damage while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
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 solution provides a simple, cost-effective, and reliable cable guidance system that prevents damage to cables during rotor blade rotation, ensuring continuous energy supply to electrical components on the rotor blade.
Implementation Method 1
The cable guide is centered between the bracket and the blade base and includes a cable ladder which is connected by fasteners to the bracket and to the blade base. The cable ladder includes two steel cables on which rungs are arranged at even distances. One of the fasteners includes a spring element which supports the cable ladder elastically.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure relates to a device for a cable guide of cables between a rotor hub and a rotor blade, which is rotatable about its longitudinal axis, of a wind turbine. A device is provided which, with simple means, ensures a reliable and gentle guidance of cables from the rotor hub into the rotor blade of a wind turbine, wherein pitching of the rotor blade should not be hindered and reliable energy supply of the electrical components in or on the rotor blade should be ensured. The rotor hub includes a bracket and the rotor blade includes a blade base. The cable guide is arranged centered in the middle between the bracket and the blade base and includes a cable ladder.