Vestas Wind Systems A/s

Luke Spandley

Paul Badger

Stephen Buggy

Arran Wood

Chris Cieslak

Karl Gregory

Darren Rogers

A method of inspecting a wind turbine blade having an electro-thermal heating element and a surface protection layer. The method includes: exposing a test point of the electro-thermal heating element; contacting the test point to establish an electrical connection between the test point and a sensor; and electrically connecting the sensor to the surface protection layer. The sensor is operated to measure a resistance value indicative of an electrical resistance between the test point and the surface protection layer. The resistance value is analysed to determine a condition of the wind turbine blade. The invention provides a method of inspecting a wind turbine blade which enables damage or defects to be detected which may be difficult to detect by visual inspection or traditional non-destructive testing techniques.

Inspecting wind turbine blade

A wind turbine blade having an electro-thermal heating element is provided. The electro-thermal heating element has a sheet of electrically resistive material, which is folded so as to provide a plurality of heat zones. Each heat zone includes one or more layers of the sheet. At least two of the heat zones have a different number of layers of the sheet.

Heating a wind turbine blade

The present invention relates to an Electro-Thermal Heating element for a wind turbine blade comprising an electrically conductive resistive material; two active busbars for supplying electrical power to the electrically conductive resistive material; and at least one dummy busbar at a predetermined spacing between the two active busbars on the electrically conductive resistive material. The present invention is also directed to a method of repair of the Electro-Thermal Heating Element.

Electro-thermal heating elements

A wind turbine blade comprising an electro-thermal heating element with a tapering width. The electro-thermal heating element comprises: electrically resistive sheet material; a first electrode which is in electrical contact with the sheet material and positioned at a first end of the element; and a second electrode which is in electrical contact with the sheet material and positioned at a second end of the sheet material. An electrically conductive strip extends across a width of the element. The sheet material has a first part on a first side of the strip and a second part on a second side of the strip. The strip is in electrical contact with the first and second parts of the sheet material. The first part of the sheet material has a first width, and the second part of the sheet material has a second width which is different to the first width.

Wind turbine blade with electro-thermal heating element

A first aspect of the invention provides a wind turbine blade having a blade shell that defines a suction side, pressure side, leading edge, and a trailing edge of the blade. The blade further comprises a blade heating system comprising one or more heating elements configured to heat the blade in first and second heating areas, wherein the first heating area is closer to the leading edge than the second heating area is, and the heating system is configured to generate heat fluxes in the first and second heating areas such that the heat flux generated in the first heating area is lower than the heat flux generated in the second heating area.

The present invention relates to a method and controller for heating a wind turbine blade that comprises a plurality of heating zones. An icing factor is determined based on environmental conditions and one or more heating zones are determined based on the determined icing factor, wherein each heating zone comprises one or more Electro-Thermal Heating Elements. The one or more Electro-Thermal Heating Elements corresponding to the determined heating zones are activated to generate heat.

Electro-thermal heating

A wind turbine blade including an elongate reinforcing structure, the reinforcing structure comprising a plurality of strips of fibre-reinforced polymer arranged into a stack structure, and at least one adjacent pair of the plurality of strips including an infusion promoting layer, wherein the infusion promoting layer is a fabric comprising a plurality of twisted yarns. The invention is also expressed as a method of assembling a wind turbine blade.

Reinforcing structures for wind turbine blades

The present invention relates to methods and electro-thermal heating elements in which the electro-thermal heating element comprises a cut-out. Forming at least one multi-resistance patch for the cut-out and attaching the at least one multi-resistance patch to the electro-thermal heating element proximate to the cut-out.

A wind turbine blade () comprising an outer shell () incorporating a metallic foil component (), a conductive blade component () in-board of the metallic foil component (), and a fabric sheet assembly () positioned between the metallic component () and the conductive blade component (). The fabric sheet assembly comprises: one or more non-conductive fabric sheets () which define first and second outer surfaces () of the fabric sheet assembly (); and at least one conductive thread stitch () penetrating a depth of the one or more fabric sheets () and being exposed at the outer surfaces (); thereby to enable equipotential bonding between the conductive blade component () and the metallic foil component ().

Relating to structural components for wind turbine blades

Examples of the present disclosure generally relate to wind turbine blades configured to minimize or eliminate buildup of ice on the blades. In order to maintain an ice free surface on a wind turbine blade, one or more ETH panels are embedded in the wind turbine blade to heat the wind turbine blade. One or more busbars are electrically connected to each of the one or more ETH panels for conducting electrical power to the ETH panels. The busbars may be disposed in an overlapping configuration to provide uniform heating of the wind turbine blade.

Busbars in a stacking arrangement

A method of securing a cable () to a wind turbine blade is described. The method involves providing a pre-assembled cable assembly () comprising a cable () and a plurality of mounts (-) pre-attached to the cable () at intervals along the length of the cable (). The plurality of mounts (-) is attached to a surface () of a wind turbine blade such that the mounts (-) are spaced apart along the surface () of the blade. The spacing between adjacent mounts (-) when the mounts (-) are attached to the blade is less than the length of the cable () between said adjacent mounts (-) such that a predetermined amount of slack is provided in the cable () between said adjacent mounts (-). A pre-assembled cable assembly for use in the method is also described together with a method of assembling the cable assembly.

Method of securing cables to a wind turbine blade

A method of making a wind turbine blade comprises stacking a plurality of strips of fibre-reinforced polymeric material one on top of another to form a stack of strips (); strapping the stack of strips together by means of at least one strap () made from a fibrous material, and thereby forming a strapped stack; infusing the strapped stack with resin; and curing the resin to form an elongate spar structure in which the at least one strap () is integrated with the stack of strips.

Wind turbine blades

Examples are generally directed to techniques for controlling a temperature of a blade in a wind turbine system. One example of the present disclosure is a method of controlling a temperature of a blade in a wind turbine system. The method includes setting a target temperature, inputting physical conditions of the blade and ambient conditions about the blade into a processor, outputting a minimum amount of energy to a heating element of the blade required to reach the target temperature based on the physical conditions and ambient conditions, and adjusting the energy provided to the heating element to reach the target temperature.

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Ventnor, United Kingdom

Luke Spandley