General Electric Company

Srikanth Samudrala

Charles Erklin Seeley

Biju Nanukuttan

Dhanesh Chandrashekar Pathuvoth

Stephen Bertram Johnson

Afroz Akhtar

Willem Jan Bakhuis

Xianglei Chen

Douglas C Klein

Rajanikanth Reddy Dasari

Mohan Kumar Lakshminarayana

Srinath Bonala

The present disclosure is directed to a rotor blade assembly for a wind turbine. The rotor blade assembly includes a rotor blade having a blade root section and a rigid ring insert. The rotor blade has pressure and suction sides extending between leading and trailing edges. The blade root section includes an end face configured to attach the rotor blade assembly to a hub. Further, the blade root section includes a span-wise end portion defined by inner and outer circumferential components separated by a radial gap. The radial gap includes a first laminate material embedded between the inner and outer circumferential components at a first span-wise depth and a second laminate material embedded between the inner and outer circumferential components at a second span-wise depth. Thus, the rigid ring insert is disposed in the radial gap and embedded between the first and second laminate materials.

Ring insert for a wind turbine rotor blade

The present disclosure is directed to a pitch assembly for coupling a rotor blade to a hub of a wind turbine. In one embodiment, the pitch assembly includes a first pitch bearing having a first outer race and a first inner race rotatable relative to the first outer race via a first set of rolling elements, a second pitch bearing having a second outer race and a second inner race rotatable relative to the second outer race via a second set of rolling elements, and at least one spacer configured axially between and contacting the first and second pitch bearings. Further, at least a portion of the first pitch bearing and at least a portion of the second pitch bearing are axially aligned between the rotatable hub and the rotor blade in a generally span-wise direction.

Pitch assembly for a wind turbine rotor blade

Transportation assemblies for rotor blades are provided. A transportation assembly includes a protection cap including a nose portion and a plurality of sidewall portions extending from the nose portion, the protection cap having a generally U-shaped cross-sectional profile. The transportation assembly further includes a restraint assembly including a first protrusion and a second protrusion each extending from the protection cap, the first protrusion and the second protrusion spaced apart along a width of the protection cap.

Transportation assembly for rotor blade

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.

Sparcap for wind turbine rotor blade and method of fabricating wind turbine rotor blade

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Bengaluru, India

Srikanth Samudrala