General Electric Company

Eric Michael Shain

Amir Riahi

Aaron Alpheus Yarbrough

Christopher Daniel Caruso

Scott Jacob Huth

Curtis Wayne Rose

Donald Joseph Kasperski

Thomas Michael Moors

Richard Hardison

Ehsan Dehghan Niri

Xiomara Irizarry-Rosado

Jignesh Patel

Jacob Lee Bunch

Shannon B Geiger

The present disclosure is directed to a rotor blade assembly for a wind turbine. The rotor blade assembly includes a rotor blade having a body shell with a pressure side, a suction side, a leading edge, and a trailing edge each extending between a root portion and a tip portion. Further, the rotor blade assembly includes a protection system configured to protect the rotor blade from ice accumulation or a lightning strike. The protection system includes at least one organic conductive element configured within the rotor blade. The protection system also includes a conductor source electrically or thermally coupled to the organic conductive element. Thus, the conductor source is configured to heat the organic conductive element so as to prevent ice from accumulating on the rotor blade or to provide a conductive path for the lightning strike.

Organic conductive elements for deicing and lightning protection of a wind turbine rotor blade

A joint assembly for a wind turbine rotor blade includes a male structural member extending longitudinally through female structural members configured with a plurality of rotor blade segments. The female structural member includes first bore holes on opposing sides thereof that are aligned in a chord-wise direction. The male structural member includes second bore holes on opposing sides thereof that are aligned with the first bore holes. At least one chord-wise extending gap is defined between an outer side surface of the male structural member and an inner side surface of the female structural member. A chord-wise extending pin extends through the first and second bore holes to join the male and female structural members. At least one flanged bushing is arranged in the first and second bore holes such that a flange of the bushing extends within the chord-wise extending gap.

Joint assembly for a wind turbine rotor blade with flanged bushings

The present disclosure is directed to a rotor blade assembly for a wind turbine having a joint assembly securing first and second blade segments together. For example, the joint assembly releasably couples the first and second blade segments together at a chord-wise extending joint and includes at least one set of interlocking components. As such, the joint assembly is movable between a locked position and an unlocked position by engaging and disengaging the interlocking components. Thus, in the locked position, the first and second blade segments are secured together via the interlocking components, and movement from the locked position to the unlocked position, releases the interlocking components, thereby releasing the first and second blade segments from each other.

Joint assembly for rotor blade segments of a wind turbine

A method of non-destructive testing includes locating an ultrasonic transducer with respect to a component having a visually-inaccessible structure to collect B-scan data from at least one B-scan of the component and to collect C-scan data from at least one C-scan of the component. The method also includes filtering the B-scan data and the C-scan data to remove random noise and coherent noise based on predetermined geometric information about the visually-inaccessible structure to obtain filtered data. The method further includes performing linear signal processing and nonlinear signal processing to determine a damage index for a plurality of voxels representing the visually-inaccessible structure from the filtered B-scan data and the filtered C-scan data to generate a V-scan image. A method of non-destructive testing of a wind turbine blade and an ultrasound system are also disclosed.

Methods of non-destructive testing and ultrasonic inspection of composite materials

The present disclosure is directed to pre-cured composites for use in manufacturing rotor blade components of a wind turbine. In one embodiment, the pre-cured composites are pultruded composites having a continuous base portion with a plurality of integral protrusions extending from the continuous base portion, and a fabric layer cured with the continuous base portion. Further, adjacent protrusions are separated by a gap.

Pre-cured composites for rotor blade components

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Simpsonville, SC, United States of America

Eric Michael Shain