Pultruded fibre-reinforced strip for a reinforced structure, such as a spar cap
AssigneeLm Wind Power A/S
InventorThomas Merzhaeuser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pultruded fibre-reinforced strip configured to be stacked with one or more similar strips to form a spar cap of a wind turbine blade, comprising a core comprising a plurality of first fibres embedded in a resin matrix, the plurality of first fibres being carbon fibres and/or glass fibres, and a surface layer enclosing and covering the core and comprising a plurality of second fibres Imbedded in the resin matrix, the majority of the plurality of second fibres having an elastic modulus less than 10 GPa.
Claims19
A pultruded fibre-reinforced strip configured to be stacked with one or more similar pultruded fibre-reinforced strips to form an elongate reinforcing structure, the pultruded fibre-reinforced strip comprising:
- a core comprising a plurality of first fibres embedded in a resin matrix, the plurality of first fibres being carbon fibres and/or glass fibres;
- and
- a surface layer enclosing and covering the core and comprising a plurality of second fibres embedded in the resin matrix, a majority of the plurality of second fibres having an elastic modulus less than 10 GPa,
- wherein the surface layer has opposed main surfaces and opposed lateral faces, and wherein the pultruded strips are each configured to be stacked on top of each other such that one of the main surfaces of one of the pultruded strips is positioned against one of the main surfaces of an adjacent one of the pultruded strips.
A pultrusion process for making a pultruded strip suitable to be stacked with one or more similar pultruded strips to form an elongated reinforcing structure, the pultrusion process comprising:
- drawing resin impregnated fibres through a pultrusion die to form a core comprising a plurality of first fibres embedded in a resin matrix, the plurality of first fibres being carbon fibres and/or glass fibres, and to form a surface layer enclosing and covering the core and comprising a plurality of second fibres embedded in the resin matrix, a majority of the plurality of second fibres having an elastic modulus less than 10 GPa,
- wherein the surface layer has opposed main surfaces and opposed lateral faces, and wherein the pultruded strips are each configured to be stacked on top of each other such that one of the main surfaces of one of the pultruded strips is positioned against one of the main surfaces of an adjacent one of the pultruded strips.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.