Spar cap for a wind turbine rotor blade formed from pre-cured laminate plates of varying thicknesses
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsAaron A. Yarbrough, Christopher Daniel Caruso
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A spar cap for a rotor blade of a wind turbine may generally include an assembly of pre-cured laminate plates stacked on one top of the other, with the assembly including an outermost pre-cured plate, an innermost pre-cured plate positioned opposite the outermost pre-cured plate and a plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates stacked directly between the outermost and innermost pre-cured plates. The outermost pre-cured plate may be configured to be positioned adjacent to an inner surface of a body shell of the rotor blade. In addition, the outermost pre-cured plate may define a plate thickness that differs from a plate thickness defined by the innermost pre-cured plate by at least 50%.
Claims15
A spar cap for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, the rotor blade including a blade root, a blade tip and a body shell extending between the blade root and the blade tip, the spar cap comprising:
- an assembly of pre-cured laminate plates stacked one on top of the other, the assembly of pre-cured laminate plates including an outermost pre-cured plate, an innermost pre-cured plate positioned opposite the outermost pre-cured plate and a plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates stacked directly between the outermost and innermost pre-cured plates, the outermost pre-cured plate configured to be positioned adjacent to an inner surface of the body shell,
- wherein the outermost pre-cured plate defines a plate thickness that differs from a plate thickness defined by the innermost pre-cured plate by at least 50%, and
- wherein the plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates are arranged such that a plate thickness of the plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates continuously decreases or continuously increases between adjacent pre-cured plates of the plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates as the spar cap extends between the outermost pre-cured plate and the innermost pre-cured plate.
A spar cap for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, the rotor blade including a blade root, a blade tip and a body shell extending between the blade root and the blade tip, the spar cap comprising:
- an assembly of pre-cured laminate plates stacked one on top of the other, the assembly of pre-cured laminate plates including an outermost pre-cured plate, an innermost pre-cured plate positioned opposite the outermost pre-cured plate and a plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates stacked directly between the outermost and innermost pre-cured plates, the outermost pre-cured plate configured to be positioned adjacent to an inner surface of the body shell,
- wherein the outermost pre-cured plate defines a plate thickness corresponding to one of a maximum plate thickness or a minimum plate thickness for the spar cap and the innermost pre-cured plate defines a plate thickness corresponding to the other of the maximum plate thickness or the minimum plate thickness for the spar cap, and
- wherein the plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates are arranged such that a plate thickness of the plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates continuously decreases or continuously increases between adjacent pre-cured plates of the plurality of intermediate pre-cured plates as the spar cap extends between the outermost pre-cured plate and the innermost pre-cured plate.
A spar cap for a rotor blade of a wind turbine, the rotor blade including a blade root, a blade tip and a body shell extending between the blade root and the blade tip, the spar cap comprising:
- an assembly of pre-cured laminate plates, the assembly of pre-cured laminate plates including a plurality of first pre-cured laminate plates stacked one on top of the other along an inboard region of the spar cap and a plurality of second pre-cured laminate plates stacked one on top of the other along an outboard region of the spar cap,
- wherein the plurality of first and second pre-cured laminate plates are inter-leafed such that an overlapped region is defined between each second pre-cured laminate plate and each pair of adjacent first pre-cured laminate plates along a spanwise direction of the spar cap, and
- wherein, at least in the overlapped region, a plate thickness of the plurality of first pre-cured laminate plates is greater than a plate thickness of the plurality of second pre-cured laminate plates.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.