DK201600205A1

DK201600205A1 - Air termination for a wind turbine blade

Info

Publication number: DK201600205A1
Application number: DKPA201600205A
Authority: DK
Inventors: Yan Zhuang
Original assignee: Yan Zhuang
Priority date: 2016-03-05
Filing date: 2016-04-06
Publication date: 2017-10-02

Abstract

The present invention relates to an air termination for a wind turbine blade, comprising a basic body (1), a parent body (3) and a gasket group (2); wherein said basic body(1) of said air termination comprises an air termination surface (101), a joint column (102) and an 'I' shaped joint face (103); wherein said parent body (3) of said air termination comprises an air column and a bolt (303); wherein said bolt (303) is connected to said air column, and said high elastic gasket group (2) is cup jointed to a connector of said air termination basic body (1); and wherein a corresponding opening (302) is provided on a top surface of said air column.

Description

Title

Air termination for a wind turbine blade Technology field

The invention relates to an air termination for a wind turbine blade having improved resilience to lightning and correspondingly lower maintenance needs.

Background technology

As a renewable energy resource, wind energy has been in a period of high growth in recent years. However, wind turbine systems suffer worse and worse effects from lightning because of the environment they are situated in, and because the lightning causes the wind turbine blade's damage rate by up to 25%. The air termination of the wind turbine blades comprises metal elements. After being struck by lightning, the turbine blade loses its lightning discharge channel for two reasons: the channel is irreplaceable and the channel's downlead melts down. Therefore, there is a need for a lightning protection system with replaceable air-termination and long lasting downlead. The invention not only extends the effective life of the lightning protection system blade, but also provides a reliable detection criterion for achieving a partition detection. Furthermore, the invention also improves lightning protection performance and lowers the cost of the blade inspection. A conventional air termination is installed on a wind turbine blade and is equipped with a downlead. However, from our long-term observation, we realized that the downlead cannot receive the shunt of transient of a large current discharge, and fusing will happen during long-term service life, therefore, to some degree, conventional air terminations adds to the risk of a wind turbine being hit by lightning and increases the frequency of maintenance.

The invention provides an improved wind turbine, comprising a changeable air termination and double downleads for overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art.

Short summary of the invention

In a first aspect of the invention an air termination for a wind turbine blade, comprising a basic body (1), a parent body (3) and a gasket group (2), is disclosed wherein the basic body (1) of the air termination comprises an air termination surface (101), a joint column (102) and an '1' shaped joint face (103), wherein the parent body (3) of the air termination comprises an air column and a bolt (303); and wherein the bolt (303) is connected to the air column, the high elastic gasket group (2) is cup joint to a connector of the air termination basic body (1), wherein a corresponding opening (302) is provided on a top surface of the air column.

In a second aspect an air termination for a wind turbine blade is disclosed wherein the gasket group (2) is a high elasticity gasket group comprising at least two spherical surface gaskets, wherein the spherical surface gaskets of the gasket group are located opposite to each other.

In a third aspect an air termination for a wind turbine blade is disclosed, wherein the top surface (101) of the air termination further comprises a column shaped slot (104), wherein the slot (104) is adapted for supporting a rotation power element.

In a fourth aspect a wind turbine blade is disclosed comprising a blade (4), an air termination and downleads (5, 6), wherein the downleads are mounted inside the blade (4) , the air termination and the downleads (5, 6) are fixed on the blade (4), the downleads comprising a basic downlead (5) and a subsidiary downlead (6), wherein the downleads are connected in a series by a first deconcentrator (7) , wherein the basic downleads (5) are connected in a series with a plurality of wire connectors (8), wherein each individual wire (8) is connected with a parallel wire made of a cable and a metal tooth, wherein the metal tooth receives a lightning and breaks over to the subsidiary downlead (6), wherein the air termination is an air termination according to any of claims 1 to 3 mounted on the deconcentrator with bolts (303) . The invention has the following advantages: The invention provides a changeable structure, wherein the structure comprises the combination of the basic body and the parent body of the air termination.

The invention provides a connection, wherein the basic body is plugged with the parent body, connected in a rotation type. The connection has a simple construction and is easy to operate.

The invention provides a gasket group with high elasticity, wherein the gasket group is cup joint to the joint column. When the basic body and the parent body plug are engaged with each other, the gasket with high elasticity is subjected to a compressive deformation. After the main body of the air termination rotates 90 degrees and fixes, the gasket with high elasticity releases elastically and raises up the basic body to form a tight physical junction between the bottom joint face and the top surface of the air cylinder and realize the current conduction.

The invention provides double downleads joint by twin ties design by providing the basic downlead and the subsidiary downlead to ensure that each group of the air termination conducts lightning current through both downleads. In addition, a puncture-connected deconcentrator is provided between the air termination and downleads for overcoming the drawbacks of the conventional blade downleads by estimate of the connection continuity of screw appliance by the breaking lines. The invention provides a redundant backup for the blade lightning protection wire.

Description of the figures

Figure 1 is a structural diagram of the air termination according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a structure diagram of the basic body of the air termination according to the invention.

Figure 3 is a structure diagram of the parent body of the air termination according to the invention.

Figure 4 is a structure diagram of the high elasticity gasket according to an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 5 is a structure diagram of the wind turbine blade according to the invention.

Detailed description

In the following detailed description, a reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part of the description and in which some specific embodiments that are shown merely by the way of illustration. The air termination for a wind turbine blade according to the invention comprises a basic body of air termination 1, a high elastic gasket group 2 and a parent body 3 of the air termination, wherein the basic body 1 of the air termination comprises an air termination surface 101, a joint column 102 and a '1'-typed bottom joint face 103, wherein the top surface 101 of the air termination, comprises a column shaped slot 104, the slot (104) is adapted for supporting the rotation power, which is easy to install or disassemble on the basic body 1 of the air termination by using the specialized tools. The high elastic gasket 2 comprises a rubber gasket, which is cup joint with joint column 102. The rubber gasket has a spherical faced or an arc faced ring shape. For example, two rubber gaskets have their two arc surfaces reversely set and their two concave surfaces are accordingly set on the joint column 102. The parent body 3 of the air termination comprises a hermetic air cylinder 301, wherein a top face of the air cylinder 301 is equipped with an opening 302, which is correspondingly inserted into the bottom of the joint face 103. A bottom bolt 303, the inner diameter of opening 302 is larger than the external diameter of the bottom joint face 103, the external diameter of the gasket is equal to the external diameter of the air cylinder 301 are also provided.

Further, an installation procedure is described below. The bottom joint face 103 of the basic body 1 of the air termination and the opening 302 of the parent body 3 of the air termination are aligned. Then the basic body 1 of air termination exerts a downward pressure and makes the elastic gasket deform under stress until the bottom joint face 103 completely enters a lumen of the air cylinder. Meanwhile the basic body 1 of the air termination is rotated 90 degrees and loosened, the high elastic gasket 2 loses the external pressure and regains elasticity and releases elasticity, wherein the elasticity provides support to the basic body 1 and the parent body 2 of the air termination and allows the upper surface of the bottom joint face 103 and the bottom of the parent body 3 butt joint to conduct electricity. The bottom joint face 103 and the bottom of the parent body 3 are butt jointed tightly and allow electric conduction with the continuing effective force. A wind turbine blade is provided with the air termination, wherein is the turbine blade comprises a blade 4, an air termination and downleads, wherein downleads are provided inside the blade 4, the air termination and downleads are mounted on the blade 4, wherein the downleads include a basic downlead 5 and a subsidiary downlead 6, wherein both downleads are connected in a series by the deconcentrator 7, wherein basic downlead 5 is connected in a series with a plurality of wire connectors 8, wherein each wire connector 8 is connected with the parallel wire made of a cable and a metal tooth, wherein the metal tooth receives lightning and breaks over subsidiary downlead. The air termination is installed on the deconcentrator 7 and on the wire connector 8 with bolts 303.

Claims

1. An air termination for a wind turbine blade, comprising a basic body (1), a parent body (3) and a gasket group (2) ; wherein said basic body (1) of said air termination comprises an air termination surface (101), a joint column (102) and an '1' shaped joint face (103); wherein said parent body (3) of said air termination comprises an air column and a bolt (303); wherein said bolt (303) is connected to said air column, and said high elastic gasket group (2) is cup jointed to a connector of said air termination basic body (1); and wherein a corresponding opening (302) is provided on a top surface of said air column.

2. An air termination for wind turbine blade according to claim 1, wherein said gasket group (2) is a high elasticity gasket group comprising at least two spherical surface gaskets, wherein said spherical surface gaskets of said gasket group are located opposite to each other.

3. An air termination for wind turbine blade according to either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said top surface (101) of said air termination further comprises a column shaped slot (104), wherein said slot (104) is adapted for supporting a rotation power element.

4. A wind turbine blade comprising an air termination, said wind turbine blade comprising a blade (4) , an air termination and downleads (5, 6) , wherein said downleads are mounted inside said blade (4), said air termination and said downleads (5, 6) are fixed on said blade (4), said downleads comprising a basic downlead (5) and a subsidiary downlead (6), wherein said downleads are connected in a series by a first deconcentrator (7), wherein said basic downleads (5) are connected in a series with a plurality of wire connectors (8), wherein said each individual wire connector (8) is connected with a parallel wire made of a cable and a metal tooth, wherein said metal tooth receives a lightning and breaks over to said subsidiary downlead (6), wherein said air termination is an air termination according to any of claims 1 to 3 mounted on said deconcentrator with bolts (303) .