Sparcap for wind turbine rotor blade and method of fabricating wind turbine rotor blade
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsAfroz Akhtar, Srikanth Samudrala
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sparcap for a wind turbine rotor blade. The sparcap includes a first carbon material layer coupled to an inner surface of the wind turbine rotor blade. The first carbon material layer extends along at least a portion of a length of the wind turbine rotor blade. A core material is coupled to the first carbon material layer. The core material is positioned with respect to a buckling prone region of the wind turbine rotor blade. A second carbon material layer covers the core material and is coupled to the first carbon material layer and/or the core material. The second carbon material layer extends along at least a portion of the length of the wind turbine rotor blade.
Claims20
A sparcap for a wind turbine rotor blade, said sparcap comprising:
- a first carbon material layer coupled to an inner surface of the wind turbine rotor blade, said first carbon material layer extending along at least a portion of a length of the wind turbine rotor blade;
- a core material coupled to said first carbon material layer, said core material positioned with respect to a buckling prone region of the wind turbine rotor blade;
- and
- a second carbon material layer covering said core material and coupled to at least one of said first carbon material layer and said core material, said second carbon material layer extending along at least a portion of the length of the wind turbine rotor blade.
A rotor blade for a wind turbine, said rotor blade comprising:
- a first blade section and a second blade section coupled to said first blade section to form said rotor blade, each of said first blade section and said second blade section having a leading edge and a trailing edge;
- a first sparcap coupled to said first blade section;
- and
- a second sparcap coupled to said second blade section, each of said first sparcap and said second sparcap comprising:
- a first carbon material layer coupled to an inner surface of a respective blade section, said first carbon material layer extending along at least a portion of a length of said rotor blade;
- a core material coupled to said first carbon material layer, said core material positioned with respect to a buckling prone region of said rotor blade;
- and
- a second carbon material layer covering said core material and coupled to at least one of said first carbon material layer and said core material, said second carbon material layer extending along at least a portion of the length of said rotor blade.
A method for fabricating a rotor blade for a wind turbine, said method comprising:
- forming a first blade section and a second blade section, each of the first blade section and the second blade section having a leading edge and a trailing edge;
- and
- coupling a first sparcap to an inner surface of the first blade section, the first sparcap comprising at least one carbon material layer and at least one core material section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.