Wind turbine blade joint assembly and method of making wind turbine blades
AssigneeGougeon Brothers, Inc.
InventorsMeade A. Gougeon, Jan C. Gougeon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Hollow wind turbine blades and the like comprising abutting blade sections, with nose forming strips and converging walls forming a tail section connecting with the ends of the nose forming strips, and a method of fabricating them comprising machining the facial end walls of the abutting blade sections to provide a precise alignment thereof providing a flush joint when the sections are butted together, adhesively bonding the blade sections in abutting relation and permitting the bond to cure, cutting communicating splice receiving slots in the abutting nose forming strips, and inserting adhesively bonding splice inserts which fit the slots in place in the slots.
Claims15
In a wind turbine, an elongate, tubular, essentially wood-resin composite material blade assembly secured on a wind turbine shaft and having at least a pair of essentially hollow sections with abutting ends and comprising in cross-section a nose strip part with spaced apart ends and convergent trailing edge walls forming a tail portion;
- the abutting section ends having an adhesive spread thereon and being adhesively bonded in an abutting matched relationship in which identically exteriorly configured abutting nose portions mate with one another, and identically exteriorly configured abutting tail sections also mate to provide a smooth surfaced essentially hollow monolithic body;
- axially communicating convergent axially extending slots with smooth surfaced side walls cut in the abutting blade sections after the adhesive bonding thereof in perimetrally spaced relation around the perimeters of the abutting nose and tail portions of the mating sections to form mating slots of a length at least eight times their width in the mating sections;
- splice inserts fitting said slots and adhesively resin bonded therein in flush relation with the perimeters.
A method of fabricating wind turbines having wood-resin composite, essentially hollow wind turbine blades comprising endwisely abutting blade sections of generally tear-drop cross section with generally curvilinear shaped in section, essentially hollow nose forming strips, and converging in section walls projecting therefrom forming essentially hollow tail sections connecting with the ends of the nose forming strips comprising:
- machining the facial end walls of the abutting nose forming strips and converging tail forming walls of the blade sections to provide a precise alignment thereof providing a flush joint when the sections are butted together to extend longitudinally along an axis;
- clamping the blades in abutting relation and spreading an adhesive resin on the facial end walls for adhesively resin bonding the facial end walls of the blade sections in longitudinal abutting relation, and permitting the resin to cure;
- then cutting elongate axially communicating splice receiving slots with smooth surfaced side walls which extend from the abutting ends of the blades in perimetrally spaced relation in the perimeter of the abutting blade section walls, the slots in the mating sections being of a length at least eight times their width;
- inserting and in situ adhesively resin bonding splice inserts which fit the slots and are flush with the perimeter of the blade sections in place in the slots;
- and
- securing the blades formed in place on a wind turbine shaft.
A method of fabricating wind turbines having wood-resin composite, essentially hollow wind turbine blades comprising mating endwisely abutting blade sections of generally tear-drop cross-section with generally curvilinear shaped in section, essentially hollow, nose forming strips and converging, in section, walls projecting therefrom forming tail sections connecting with the ends of the nose forming strips comprising the steps of:
- clamping the blades in abutting relation to extend longitudinally along an axis while adhesively resin bonding the blade sections in longitudinal abutting relation and curing the resin bond;
- then cutting mating elongate longitudinally aligned splice receiving slots which extend from the abutting ends of the blades in perimetrally spaced relation in the perimeter of the bonded abutting blade section walls;
- then inserting, and in situ adhesively resin bonding, splice inserts which each fit a pair of the slots and are essentially flush with the perimeter of the blade sections in place in the slots;
- and securing the blades formed in place on a wind turbine shaft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.