Advanced Blade Designs for Wind Turbines

A new wind turbine blade design that aims to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and simplify manufacturing compared to conventional wind turbine blades. The key feature is replacing the fixed blades with aerodynamic elements (ADEs) that can rotate independently around the turbine shaft. The ADEs are made up of segments connected by spokes and have curved shapes optimized for specific air flow speeds. This allows the ADEs to align better with the wind as they rotate, reducing air resistance and increasing energy capture. The spoke extensions beyond the ADE tips provide lightning protection. The modular design enables easier transportation and assembly compared to large fixed blades.

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A multi-blade wind turbine rotor that instantly adjusts blade pitch angles based on wind speed to optimize performance over a wide range of wind conditions. The blades can rotate in a range from 0 to 45 degrees relative to the fixed outer ring they are attached to. This allows the blades to automatically find the best lift-to-drag ratio for the current wind speed. In high winds, a braking mechanism engages to slow or stop the rotor to prevent overspeeding. The split design allows large diameter rotors to be assembled and disassembled for transport.

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Wind turbine blade design with flexible tips that change orientation as wind speed increases to improve efficiency and reduce loads. The blades have flexible tips that initially tilt towards the blade rotation direction at low speeds, preventing vortex formation. As wind speed increases, the tips gradually tilt away from the rotation direction, reducing aerodynamic loads. The flexible tips are made of materials that deform with airflow forces. The blades are used on wind turbines to capture more power at medium speeds and reduce loads at high speeds compared to rigid tips.

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A wind turbine rotor blade design that can automatically adjust the blade pitch angle based on wind speed to improve starting capability and efficiency. The blades have pitch mechanisms with movable positioning pins that change angle as the wind moves the pins in grooves. The blades attach to the hub at the edge of the blade to allow pitch change. The rotor has an outer ring with split sections, spoke plates, and a central hub. The spoke plates connect the ring and hub at 45° angles matching blade rotation. This allows hub-mounted blades to pivot and rotate with the hub.

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Vertical axis wind turbine with asymmetric blades that extracts more energy from fluid flow than conventional vertical axis turbines. The blades have a hollow, asymmetric airfoil shape that narrows towards the leading edge and has convex sides. This hybrid lift-impulse blade design takes advantage of both impulse force from fluid flow and aerodynamic lift force as the blade moves through the fluid. Two counter-rotating turbines with oppositely oriented blades further increase efficiency through positive wake interaction and mutual blade benefiting fluid directing.

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Reducing the negative effects of wind turbine wakes on downwind turbines while maintaining optimal power output for individual turbines. The technique involves reconfigurable blades with adjustable sections that can alter lift distribution. By adjusting these sections, turbulent mixing in the wake can be controlled to balance wake diffusion effects and power output. This allows optimizing wake characteristics for overall farm efficiency. The blades can have movable flaps or slats that change the lift coefficient and wake properties. By dynamically adjusting these sections based on wind conditions, the wakes can be tailored for optimal farm performance.

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A cost-effective method of making wide pultruded strips that can conform to the curved shape of wind turbine blade molds without forming resin-rich pockets. The method involves using pultruded strips with longitudinal grooves that can be bent or cracked along the grooves to match the mold curvature. This allows wider pultrusions to be used while still conforming to the blade shape. The grooves provide bending points to facilitate curving the wide strips. The grooved pultrusions are made using a die with protruding features that form the grooves during pultrusion.

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A blade made of layered composite material that is better resistant to delamination and detachment failures when exposed to fluid flows, especially fluctuating loads. The blade has skins with overlapping layers that extend from body portions between the skins towards the trailing edge. The internal layers have body portions and skin portions that form the skin. This integral layer arrangement prevents delamination by providing overlapping connections between the skins. The idea is that adjacent layers of the composite material overlap rather than join at the spar, skins, or leading/trailing edges. This keeps the layers connected along the blade instead of having detached sections.

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Wind turbine blade attachments to improve aerodynamics and power generation. The attachments are flow-guiding devices like spoilers or Gurney flaps. The devices are attached to the blade surface with flexible housings filled with adhesive. This allows bonding without grinding or complex prep steps. The attachments are also positioned in triangles to distribute loads, curved to accommodate blade bending, and reinforced with ribs for stiffness.

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Reducing aerodynamic noise in large wind turbines by optimizing blade geometry. The blades have a specific solidity profile that decreases as radius increases. This reduces tip speeds without decreasing lift force. The profile is defined by a combined radius specific solidity Solr >= 0.0140 at 0.7R, >= 0.0116 at 0.8R, and >= 0.0090 at 0.9R. This allows reducing tip speeds without sacrificing power generation compared to conventional blades.

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A streamlined wind turbine blade design with improved strength and durability compared to traditional blades. The blade has a streamlined shape with a truss running along its length inside the blade shell. This truss acts as the blade stem to provide structural support. The skin and keel make up the outer shell of the blade. The truss enhances blade strength, especially in high winds, without adding complexity like tapered pipes or multiple ribs. The trussed blade also allows pitch control of the empennage.

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Aerodynamic flaps for wind turbine blades that improve power generation without active control. The flaps are passively deflected based on rotor speed using a centrifugal force body and elastic element. At low speeds, the flaps extend to increase lift. As speed increases, centrifugal force retracts the flaps to reduce drag. This passive flap control provides yield benefits without complex sensors or active control.

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A horizontal axis wind turbine design with improved efficiency and reduced costs compared to conventional wind turbines. The design features a unique blade shape with a convex outer surface and a concave inner surface. The blades are mounted on a paddle-shaped hub instead of a conventional airfoil shape. The concave inner surface reduces drag when the blades are rotating, improving efficiency. The convex outer surface provides lift when the blades translate, similar to an airplane wing. This allows the blades to generate lift and thrust simultaneously, improving lift coefficient and power output. The blades can also rotate like a traditional wind turbine when needed. The design aims to address the limitations of conventional wind turbines, like low efficiency, high cost, and poor reliability.

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Vertical axis wind turbine with improved aerodynamics and energy conversion efficiency compared to conventional vertical axis wind turbines. The turbine has airfoil blades with localized moving surfaces that extend 70% of the chord length from the leading edge. This band of moving surface reaches maximum speed of 7 times the incoming wind speed. This design suppresses flow separation and improves lift at low tip speeds. The moving surface has a tubular motor at the end to generate power. The turbine also uses an angle sensor to monitor blade rotation and optimize performance.

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A wind turbine blade design that allows optimizing power extraction at high wind speeds without increasing blade length. The blade has a fixed root section and a retractable tip section that can extend and contract. The tip section slides along a stub attached to the root section. This allows adjusting the blade length dynamically based on wind speed. At low wind speeds, the blades retract to reduce drag. At high wind speeds, the blades extend to capture more power while keeping the rotor speed constant. It provides a way to extract maximum power from the wind without adding length to the blades.

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A simplified vertical axis wind turbine blade design to reduce weight, improve stability, and increase safety of vertical axis wind turbines. The blade has an arc-shaped cross section and protrudes outward from the blade support. Notches are symmetrically arranged at each end of the blade. A reinforcement piece connects the blade and notches. The blade, notches, and reinforcement are all integrated into a single component. This simplified blade design reduces the number of parts and weight compared to conventional vertical axis wind turbine blades. It also improves stability and safety by allowing the blade to flex more easily in response to wind forces.

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Lift-type vertical axis wind turbine with partial moving surface blades that improves wind energy conversion efficiency without requiring external energy injection. The blades have moving surfaces 70% of chord length from the leading edge that reach 7 times wind speed. This partial moving surface design suppresses flow separation at low tip speeds while avoiding excessive energy consumption at high speeds compared to full surface active control. The moving surfaces are connected to tubular motors inside the blades for active control.

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Wind turbine design with vertically oriented blades that sweep horizontally to capture wind without requiring a rotating housing or nacelle. The blades extend horizontally from a vertical hub on a stabilized pylon. A bridge member spans the space swept by the blades to connect the upper end of the pylon to a tower. This allows maintenance and blade replacement without climbing the turbine or using specialized equipment. The blades have scooped profiles to catch wind laterally. The vertical orientation reduces horizontal thrust on the pylon foundations compared to horizontal axis turbines. The blades can also have dimpled surfaces to reduce drag.

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Wind turbine blade support design to reduce airflow turbulence and improve blade efficiency. The blade support has a shorter, thinner portion near the blade leading edge compared to the trailing edge. This reduces airflow separation and vortex formation near the blade surface. The shorter, thinner portion approaches the blade trailing edge. This prevents airflow interference and improves blade performance. The support also has a second, thicker portion further from the blade.

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Increasing the power output of wind turbines by optimizing the rotor blade design. The technique involves adding profile elements to the blade trailing edge to increase the blade depth. A controller adjusts the blade pitch angle based on the increased depth. This compensates for the reduced local angle of attack as the elements enlarge the blade. By accounting for the element effect, it allows setting the optimal pitch for the modified blade shape.

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