Advanced Materials for Wind Turbine Blades

Wind turbine blade design with optimized aerodynamics and structural integrity to improve energy capture and reliability. The blade is engineered using CFD simulations and optimization algorithms to minimize drag and maximize lift across a wide range of wind speeds and directions. The blade shape is tailored to reduce vortex shedding and turbulence losses. Innovative structural solutions like advanced materials and attachment mechanisms enhance durability and resilience.

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A protective layer for aerodynamic profiles like wings, blades, and fuselages that provides improved erosion resistance and impact durability compared to conventional coatings. The layer uses a helicoidal architecture of fiber-reinforced composite plies arranged in a spiral pattern around the profile. This configuration helps dissipate impact energy in-plane instead of through the thickness, preventing delamination and damage propagation. The helicoidal arrangement also tailors stress wave propagation speed and acoustic impedance for better erosion protection. The composite plies have a resin matrix between the fibers. The helicoidal layer can be added during manufacturing or retrofitted onto existing profiles.

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Wind turbine component with a layered structure that allows optimizing thickness and material for load distribution. The component has a curved main body made by vacuum forming a stack of layered materials with varying thickness. This enables adjusting the shape to match loads without needing thick sections that negatively impact performance. The stack can have inner layers with different materials, like rigid support and flexible protection. Layers can also have sensing or active functionality. The layered structure allows customizing thickness, material, and properties in different areas for load optimization.

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High-strength carbon fiber material for wind turbine blades that provides improved strength-to-weight ratio compared to conventional carbon fiber composites. The carbon fiber material for wind turbine blades includes a specific composition of carbon fiber, resin, rubber powder, nanoparticles, and curing agents. The exact parts by weight of each component are: - Carbon fiber: 50-70 parts - Polyolefin resin: 10 parts - Rubber powder: 20-30 parts - Nanoparticles: 5-10 parts - Triethylenetetramine: 3-5 parts - Epoxy resin: 30-50 parts - Curing agent: 30-50 parts The carbon fiber composite for wind turbine blades also includes a specific sequence of steps to prepare the composite

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Optimizing the stiffness of composite fiber wind turbine blades using a method that combines discrete material optimization and finite element analysis. The method involves adjusting the layup pattern of the blade's composite layers by varying the artificial density of the materials in each zone. This allows optimizing stiffness while considering manufacturing constraints like non-uniform blade thickness. The optimization aims to minimize compliance, a measure of flexibility, to maximize stiffness.

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Composite wind turbine blade design with a box girder structure that provides improved strength and manufacturing efficiency compared to traditional metal blade designs. The composite blade has an outer shell and an internal box girder structure. The girder is made of spliced boxes that gradually decrease in size from root to tip. The boxes are connected end-to-end to form the blade girder. Carbon plates and an outer skin surround the girder. This eliminates the need for complex ribs and connections compared to metal blades. The girder shape and size progression provide optimal strength. The girder boxes are manufactured separately then inserted into the outer shell during blade cure to simplify fabrication.

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Wind turbine blade with stress resistance and deformation resistance to improve reliability and lifespan in harsh outdoor environments. The blade design uses a multi-layer composite structure with corrosion-resistant coatings. The blade main body has a fiberglass base with a foam core, covered by composite layers including carbon fiber, epoxy resin, and glass fiber. The outer surface has corrosion-resistant coatings and an ultraviolet coating to protect against weathering. This layered construction provides durability against stress and deformation while preventing corrosion in outdoor wind turbine applications.

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Internal structure of wind turbine blades to improve weather resistance and longevity. The blade has layers including a base, toughening, filling, reinforcement, first weather-resistant, and second weather-resistant layer. The layers provide increased impact resistance, fatigue resistance, service strength, and weather resistance compared to conventional blades.

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Metal fiber composite boards for wind power blades that improve blade strength and fatigue resistance. The composite boards have metal plates with interspersed fiber structures in gradually increasing hole sizes along the blade length. This allows the metal-fiber ratio to be optimized for different force levels. The boards can be prepared by punching holes in metal plates, weaving fiber structures onto them, and stacking layers. This combines metal and fiber properties to enhance blade load capacity and fatigue resistance compared to using just one material.

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A wind turbine blade design that reduces weight and improves rigidity compared to conventional blades. The blade has a shear web between the blade root and tip. The shear web is made of high modulus fiber like carbon or aramid that resists bending forces. The main blade structure is made of lower modulus fiber like glass or aramid that provides lightness. By using the higher modulus fiber in the shear web, the blade can handle the centrifugal forces without needing as much material in the main section. This reduces weight without sacrificing rigidity. The lower modulus fiber in the main section keeps the overall blade light.

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A composite wind turbine blade with improved strength and manufacturing efficiency compared to traditional metal blades. The blade has a split box-shaped girder instead of solid webs. The upper and lower box halves are joined together to form the girder. This allows a larger contact area between the girder and the blade shell for better connection strength. The split design also facilitates forming the complex curved girder shape.

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A composite wind turbine blade design that provides improved vertical and horizontal stiffness compared to traditional blades. The blade has longitudinal and transverse reinforcement members to enhance stiffness in both directions. The longitudinal reinforcement is a continuous member that passes through the blade shell and all of the transverse reinforcement plates. This provides vertical stiffness. The transverse reinforcement plates are attached to the inside of the blade shell and connect the longitudinal reinforcement to the blade skin. This provides horizontal stiffness. The composite blade structure with internal reinforcement members provides better resistance to deformation during blade rotation.

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Wind turbine blades with graphene-containing materials to improve durability, weight, and performance. The blades have graphene-based materials in the blade structure, load-carrying spar, surface coatings, and retrofits. This provides benefits like erosion resistance, radar stealth, impact protection, fire retardation, weight savings, electrical conductivity, and sensor integration. The graphene-enhanced wind turbine blade components improve erosion resistance, durability, weight savings, conductivity, and other properties compared to conventional blades.

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High-strength wind turbine blade filled with lightweight composites to prevent deformation and damage when subjected to strong winds. The blade has a composite structure with layers of aluminum, magnesium, carbon fiber, and an anti-corrosion coating. The aluminum and magnesium alloys provide strength and lightweight properties. The carbon fiber adds rigidity. The composite layers are connected and reinforced internally. The blade's weight is reduced while maintaining strength to prevent deformation under high wind loads.

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Wind turbine blade design that allows easy manufacturing while improving structural strength. The blade has an outer skin, inner skin, spar caps, and shear webs. At least one spar cap is made by impregnating reinforcing fiber sheets with resin, while the others use stacked fiber support plates. This allows flexibility in the fiber sheets to better follow blade bends compared to the stiffer plates. The hybrid spar cap construction provides a balance between manufacturability and strength.

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Wind turbine blade design with improved load support and reduced cost compared to conventional blades. The blade has hollow shells with webs connecting the upper and lower halves. The webs are supported by glass fiber reinforcement structures integrated into the shell layers. A carbon fiber stiffening element is sandwiched between the glass reinforcement. This allows a single composite reinforcement spar instead of separate carbon strips. The glass and carbon layers are infused together. The glass reinforcement and stiffening element are also mechanically connected by overlapping fibers for enhanced load distribution.

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Segmented composite wind turbine blade design to improve the strength and reliability of segmented blades compared to traditional metal blades. The blade is segmented for transportation, but the segments are joined in a way that disperses forces and prevents tearing. The segments have dislocated splice locations for the webs and connecting plates. This prevents concentrated forces at the splice points when the blade is under load. The segments are directly connected to the plates instead of through the webs, preventing segment tears.

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A high-strength, high-stiffness wind turbine blade material that improves blade performance and enables monitoring of blade health. The blade material is a continuous carbon nanotube fiber-reinforced resin composite. The nanotube fibers provide enhanced mechanical properties like strength and stiffness compared to conventional carbon fiber composites. The nanotube fibers also exhibit reversible resistance changes during elastic deformation that can be monitored to detect blade strain. This allows real-time monitoring of blade deformation and condition to prevent excessive stress and fatigue.

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Metal structure wind power blade for wind turbines that is lighter, stronger, and easier to manufacture compared to traditional glass fiber blades. The metal blade has a sandwich construction with an inner metal keel and outer skin. The keel provides structural support while the skin provides aerodynamic shape. The metal construction allows larger blades with improved strength and durability. The metal structure also enables modular blade assembly and easier transportation compared to glass fiber blades. The metal blade can be stacked horizontally for container shipping. The metal construction also allows integration of features like drainage channels and waterproofing.

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Leading edge anti-corrosion wind power blades with improved durability at the most vulnerable part of the blade where wear, pitting, and corrosion occur. The blades have core materials and surfaces sprayed with a special coating. The core materials are made of cubic boron nitride laminates that resist wear and pitting. The surfaces are coated with cemented carbide paint to prevent corrosion. This coating system provides superior protection against the harsh environmental conditions at the blade leading edge.

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Lightweight carbon fiber composite wind turbine blade with reduced density compared to conventional blades without sacrificing strength. The blade has an inner core layer sandwiched between multiple epoxy adhesive layers. This sandwich structure reduces weight compared to a solid composite blade. The epoxy layers provide adhesion between the components and protect the inner core. The blade base layer provides attachment to the hub. The multiple epoxy layers provide thickness and strength without adding bulk to the blade. The sandwich construction allows for tailoring the thickness and weight distribution of the blade for optimized performance.

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Wind turbine blade composite material with improved toughness, mechanical properties, fatigue resistance, and weather resistance compared to traditional glass fiber composites. The blade composite uses a specific fiber blend of polyimide, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), and carbon fibers in a specific weight ratio. The composite also contains epoxy resin, an active diluent, and an amine curing agent. The unique fiber mix and resin formulation provides enhanced performance for wind turbine blades exposed to harsh outdoor environments.

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A lightweight, strong, and efficient composite blade for wind turbines that addresses the issues of weight, strength, and power generation efficiency of traditional blades. The blade design uses an aluminum shell with reinforcing layers inside. The reinforcing layers are made of carbon fiber composites and are connected to a central sandwich core. This structure reduces weight compared to traditional blades while maintaining strength. The layered reinforcing layers also improve blade stiffness. The composite materials and layered configuration allow for a smoother blade surface, reduced wind resistance, and improved power generation compared to complex foam sandwich blades.

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Wind turbine blade design to protect it from erosion in a way that covers only the areas most prone to erosion without wasting material. The anti-erosion layer on the blade is offset toward the pressure side from the leading edge. This allows targeted protection of the areas where erosion is more likely, like the pressure side near the leading edge where rain and debris strike at an angle. The center point of the anti-erosion layer is shifted towards the pressure side from the leading edge along the blade profile. This provides appropriate protection for the areas most susceptible to erosion without covering the whole blade.

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Manufacturing composite cores with non-traditional geometries that have improved strength and stiffness while reducing cost compared to traditional honeycomb cores. The composite cores have hollow tubular structures arranged in a two-dimensional array. The tubes have curved sides that form valleys and crests on the outer surface. Adjacent tubes contact at the crests and valleys. This allows the tubes to be wrapped around mandrels with similar shapes, then assembled and cured to form the core. The curved tubes provide improved strength and stiffness compared to traditional hexagonal honeycomb. The curved shapes also allow closer packing of the tubes for higher density cores. The method involves winding composite material around mandrels with the curved shapes, then assembling and curing the mandrels into the final core. The mandrels expand during curing to fill the gaps

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A system for manufacturing wind turbine blades with improved strength, weight, and cost efficiency. The system involves using preform layers of multiple rigid strength elements like rods stacked in a web format. The preforms are cut and dispensed from a continuous web for blade component fabrication. The preforms have tapered end zones that allow separation. The rods are collimated fibers in resin for high strength. The preforms are stacked with carrier layers and bonded resin between. The web format allows efficient storage, shipping, and dispensing of preforms compared to rolls. The tapered zones facilitate cutting. This provides blade components like spar caps with higher fiber volume fraction, reduced fiber wash, and lower resin shrinkage.

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Fiber-reinforced composite blank for wind turbine blades that enables high stiffness and strength without adding weight or complexity compared to conventional methods. The blank has a layered structure with a form core sandwiched between a fiber layer. Reinforcing rods are inserted into the form core at angles to reinforce it. This provides shear and bending stiffness without needing connecting elements through the entire thickness. The rods can be angled to optimize force transfer. After curing, the matrix binds the composite layers together. This allows making wind turbine blade sections with custom stiffness and strength for load areas without adding weight or complexity compared to conventional methods.

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A lightweight vertical windmill blade design that reduces weight and improves efficiency compared to traditional metal blades. The blade has a frame structure with cutouts covered by a layer of flexible sheet material like PTFE instead of metal. The sheet material is attached over the cutouts on the exterior or interior surface of the blade. This reduces weight while maintaining blade strength. The flexible sheet also covers the cutouts to improve airflow and reduce drag compared to exposed cutouts.

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Wind turbine blade design and manufacturing method that provides optimized stiffness, weight, and transition between the root and tip sections. The blade has a load-bearing structure made of stacked fiber layers with varying carbon fiber ratios. This allows customization of stiffness and weight at different blade sections. The carbon fiber ratio gradually changes through the thickness. It also facilitates manufacturing by allowing separate fiber layers with different ratios to be stacked and impregnated separately. This avoids drying spots and air pockets in the resin.

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Additive manufacturing of wind turbine components using biological materials and organisms to improve structural integrity, longevity, and cost-efficiency. The manufacturing involves 3D printing turbine components like blades, hubs, and nacelles using a multi-material additive process. The components have layered structures with varying concentrations of organic and inorganic materials. The inner layers have facultative anaerobic organisms that can produce enzymes and proteins. This mimics biomimetic scaffolds and matrices found in nature. The outer layers have calcium carbonate, urea, and chitin. The gradients of materials with organisms provide structural conformity and self-healing properties. The multi-material 3D printing allows customized compositions and gradients for optimal performance and durability.

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A carbon-glass hybrid wind turbine blade girder that balances weight reduction and cost effectiveness compared to pure carbon fiber blades. The hybrid girder alternates layers of carbon and glass fibers along the blade thickness. This provides a conductive carbon layer for lightning protection sandwiched between insulating glass layers. The carbon fiber layers prevent blade damage from lightning strikes while the glass layers reduce weight.

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High-performance epoxy composite material for wind power applications that has improved moldability, toughness, and electrical properties compared to conventional epoxy composites. The composite uses bisphenol A epoxy resin as a matrix, nitrile rubber CTBN, nano-silica as toughening agents, and hexanediol diglycidyl ether as a diluent. The composite is prepared by pultrusion and has enhanced impact strength, tensile strength, modulus, breakdown voltage, and electrical properties suitable for wind power components like blades and roots.

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A wind turbine blade design with an internal structural layer, a reinforcing aramid fiber layer around it, and an outer coating layer. This multi-layer construction provides improved durability and longer life compared to conventional single-layer blades. The internal structural layer resists bending forces, the aramid fiber reinforcement layer adds strength, and the outer coating protects against corrosion and damage from weather and impacts.

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Super large tow carbon fiber made from pre-oxidized and carbonized acrylic fiber for wind power blades that provides higher stiffness and cost effectiveness compared to conventional carbon fiber. The super large tow carbon fiber is made by pre-oxidizing and carbonizing textile-grade acrylic fiber to create a low-cost, ultra-long carbon fiber. This fiber is then used in wind power blade components like main beams to improve stiffness and overall blade performance at a lower cost compared to conventional carbon fiber.

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Epoxy resin composition and composite material for wind power generation blades with improved mechanical properties and processing efficiency. The epoxy resin composition contains bifunctional and monofunctional epoxy diluents, an aliphatic polyamine curing agent, and optional additives like antioxidants and coupling agents. The diluents reduce viscosity and improve processability while maintaining strength. The aliphatic polyamine curing agent provides higher elongation at break compared to traditional aromatic amines. The composite material made from this epoxy resin has better toughness and processability for wind blade manufacturing.

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Passively modifying the airfoil profile of wind turbine blades to improve lift at low angles of attack without active controls. The modification involves deformable elements attached to the blade surface that passively change shape based on local air pressure. This alters the blade thickness and camber in response to wind conditions. The deformable elements can have filler material inside and semi-permeable membranes to guide airflow. The passive deformation modifies the original airfoil profile without adding components or complexity.

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High-strength wind turbine blade for improved durability and longer life compared to conventional blades. The blade has a base layer with a grafted viscose fiber layer on top. The upper layer is a high-strength layer with a titanium alloy and aluminum alloy. The lower layer is also a high-strength layer with a cast iron and carbon steel. The thickness of the upper and lower high-strength layers is less than the base layer thickness. The viscose fiber layers connect the high-strength layers to the base layer. This composite blade design with multiple high-strength layers and interconnected layers provides higher strength and fatigue resistance compared to conventional blades.

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A structure for wind turbine blades and aircraft wings that improves durability and efficiency by encapsulating interior fluid volumes with pressurized fluids different from the external ambient fluid pressure. This reduces stress and cracking compared to conventional blades with unpressurized interiors. The encapsulated volumes are sealed, pressurized, and accessible through valves for retrofitting existing blades. The blades can have winglet-shaped airfoils like modern commercial airliners to further enhance efficiency.

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Wind turbine blade design with a metal strip at the tip to suppress erosion and maintain aerodynamic performance. The metal strip covers the leading edge at the blade tip to prevent erosion from rain and debris. This reduces erosion compared to coatings or tapes that can degrade and fall off. The strip overlaps the blade tip and connects to the internal receptor. It also electrically connects to lightning conductors along the blade to protect the hub.

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A method to manufacture vertical axis wind turbine blades using a snap-fit assembly of lightweight components filled with high-density foam. The blade is made by joining glueless components like forward and aft spars, ribs, and trailing supports that have snap-together ends with circular dovetails. High-density foam is injected into the assembled blade frame to fill the interior. This allows alignment and proper positioning of the components during assembly. The foam-filled blade provides structural strength without needing a complex molding process.

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A structure for wind turbine blades and other aerodynamic structures like aircraft wings that reduces fatigue and damage due to cyclical loading. The structure involves encapsulating a volume inside the blade with a fluid under pressure different from the external air pressure. This internal pressure counteracts the blade's expansion and contraction during rotation, preventing cracking and delamination at the blade edges. The internal pressure can be controlled through valves to balance with the external pressure during operation.

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Using functionalized graphene in wind turbine blades, towers, and coatings to improve performance and durability. The graphene can be incorporated into the blade structure, load-carrying spar, surface coatings, and retrofitted onto existing blades. Benefits include reduced weight, increased strength, improved erosion resistance, better impact resistance, enhanced conductivity, radar absorption, and thermal management. Functionalized graphene in blades can also provide de-icing functionality. Graphene-containing coatings on towers can enable higher tower heights. The graphene can also be used in wind turbine sensors.

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Wind turbine blade component with improved strength-to-weight ratio and reduced manufacturing costs. The blade component, such as a spar cap, is made using preform layers of multiple rigid strength elements or rods arranged in a single layer. The rods are collimated with aligned fibers and held together by retaining layers. This allows forming the component with stacked preform layers instead of fabricating it by winding fibrous layers. The preform layers provide high rigidity and compression strength for load-bearing applications like spar caps without significant weight increase. The collimated rods also reduce wrinkling and buckling compared to woven fabrics. The preform stacking allows adjusting fiber volume fraction and component thickness. The preform layers can interleave with fibrous layers for wider widths.

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High-toughness wind turbine blade material that improves the durability of wind turbine blades against impact and fatigue. The material is a composite resin mixture coated on a mesh fiber. It contains unsaturated polyester resin, ABS resin, wollastonite powder, brucite powder, titanium dioxide nanoparticles, initiator, coupling agent, and curing agent. The composite formulation provides enhanced toughness and impact resistance compared to traditional wind turbine blade resins.

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Vertical axis wind turbine blade with reduced weight and improved durability for vertical axis wind turbines. The blade has an aluminum alloy skeleton and an outer skin made of glass steel. The aluminum frame has dovetail grooves and the glass steel skin has matching guide rails. This allows the skin to slide onto the frame during assembly. The aluminum frame provides strength and lightweightness, while the glass steel skin protects the frame and resists external factors.

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Wind turbine blade design with improved strength, weight, and cost compared to conventional blades. The blade has a pressure side shell and a suction side shell joined to form a cavity. Inside the pressure side shell, a curved beam extends along the blade length. Inside the suction side shell, a separate curved beam extends along the blade length. Webs connect the pressure and suction side beams. The pressure side beam has a glass fiber layer near the shell and a transition layer with gradually increasing carbon fiber content. The suction side beam is pure glass fiber. This allows using cheaper, lighter glass fiber for most of the blade and transitioning to stronger carbon fiber near the shells. The curved beams provide localized reinforcement without adding bulk.

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Root insert design for wind turbine blades that reduces stress concentrations at the blade-hub connection to improve fatigue life. The root insert has a metal bushing with grooves, surrounded by layers of composite with alternating fiber angles. This provides a gradual load transition between the blade and hub bolts, preventing stress concentrations. The alternating fiber angles in the composite layers help distribute the load more evenly.

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Composite material for wind turbine blades that allows flexure without breaking like traditional composite materials. The composite has rigid elements connected by flexible elements. This enables the blade to bend during operation without failing since the flexible elements allow the rigid elements to flexibly connect. The composite can be made from rigid elements like wood or foam and flexible elements like thermoplastics or elastomers. The composite forms a flat or adaptable material when assembled.

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Wind turbine blade material composition to improve wind energy absorption and conversion efficiency. The composite includes carbon fiber, nano-titanium carbide, reinforcing fiber, manganese, aluminum, epoxy resin, calcium carbonate, calcium tungstate, sodium silicate, zinc oxide, diluent, coupling agent, antioxidant, ultraviolet absorber, and stabilizer. The specific weight percentages of each component can vary within certain ranges. This composite structure improves wind energy absorption compared to conventional blade materials.

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Wind turbine blade design to protect against erosion in a way that covers only the most vulnerable areas. The anti-erosion layer on the blade is shifted towards the pressure side from the leading edge. This is done in part of the blade span where the anti-erosion layer extends. The shift is greater closer to the root and less near the tip. By offsetting the center of the layer towards the side with more erosion potential, it provides targeted protection where needed without unnecessarily increasing coverage.

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