Morphing segmented wind turbine and related method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11466660-B2
Application number	US-201916719612-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2019
Priority date	Jun 21, 2011
Publication date	Oct 11, 2022
Grant date	Oct 11, 2022

Abstract

A downwind morphing rotor that exhibits bending loads that will be reduced by aligning the rotor blades with the composite forces. This reduces the net loads on the blades which therefore allow for a reduced blade mass for a given maximum stress. The downwind morphing varies the amount of downstream deflection as a function of wind speed, where the rotor blades are generally fully-aligned to non-azimuthal forces for wind speeds between rated and cut-out conditions, while only the outer segments of the blades are generally aligned between cut-in and rated wind speeds. This alignment for large (MW-scale) rated turbines results in much larger downstream deflections of the blades at high wind speeds as compared to that of a conventional rigid single-piece upwind turbine blade.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wind turbine comprising:
at least two downwind-morphing rotor blades, each rotor blade configured to aeroelastically deflect flapwise in a downwind direction in a load-dependent manner to establish a specified downwind deflection angle at rated load using the aeroelastic deflection, to align the rotor blade with a load path defined by a contribution of forces including aerodynamic thrust force, centrifugal force, and gravitational force; and
a support tower;
wherein each of the at least two downwind-morphing rotor blades comprises a segmented configuration including at least two segments, the two segments including a first segment defining a root section and a second segment defining a blade tip; and
wherein respective segments amongst the at least two segments controllably unlock in a sequential matter to establish respective angles of load-aligned deflection.

2. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein the deflection of the rotor blades is established at least in part using a hub coupling to set the rotor blades at an angle extending in the downwind direction.

3. The wind turbine of claim 2 , wherein the respective rotor blades are set at an initial downwind angle at the hub, relative to an axis of a rotation plane about the hub in the downwind direction.

4. The wind turbine of claim 2 , wherein the hub is tilted with respect to a gravitational plane to establish a specified rotor angle.

5. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein the downwind deflection of the respective rotor blades vary within the specified range depending on rotational positions of the respective blades about a hub.

6. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein the at least two segments are coupled together to define a pre-aligned configuration oriented in the downwind direction.

7. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein the second segment is configured to unlock first.

8. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein at least the blade tip of the rotor blade is configured to deflect into a stowed configuration toward a horizontal alignment.

9. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein the support tower comprises an aerodynamic fairing.

10. The wind turbine of claim 9 , wherein a rotational position of the aerodynamic fairing is variable in response to an incident wind direction.

11. The wind turbine of claim 1 , wherein the support tower comprises a truss structure.

12. The wind turbine of claim 11 , wherein the truss structure includes a tripod-configuration of elongated supports extending from a generator housing to a surface below the wind turbine.

13. The wind turbine of claim 12 , wherein the surface comprises water and wherein the support tower is configured as a floating platform.

14. The wind turbine of claim 13 , wherein the floating platform is moored using a cable.

Assignees

• Univ Virginia Patent Foundation
• Univ Illinois

Inventors

• Loth Eric
• Selig Michael S
• Steele Adam

Classifications

• Y10T29/49337

  Composite blade · CPC title

• F05B2240/302

  Segmented or sectional blades · CPC title

• F05B2240/2213

  and with the rotor downwind from the yaw pivot axis · CPC title

• F03D1/0675 Primary

  of the blades · CPC title

• F05B2240/311

  flexible or elastic · CPC title