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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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

Source

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.

Source

A fan blade for a vertical axis wind turbine that is integrally molded using composite materials to provide improved strength and durability compared to welded or bonded blades. The blade has a spirally extending inner space surrounded by the main body. At least one reinforcing beam is integrated with the main body and connects inner surfaces to strengthen the blade. This eliminates seams and joints that can crack or fail over time.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

Lightweight, strong composite materials and structures using spider silk fibers and proteins. The composites are made by surrounding spider silk fibers or mats with short or long fibers, polyurethane resin, load-bearing members, and sandwich composites like honeycomb. This provides load-bearing composites with higher strength than the sum of the components. The spider silk enhances strength and durability compared to just synthetic fibers or resins. The composites can be used in vehicles, building components, medical devices, etc.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source