The disclosure relates to a fibre reinforcement fabric for a wind turbine component, the fabric comprising a first plurality of fibre bundles arranged in parallel in a warp direction and stitched together, the fabric having a first outermost fibre bundle defining a first fabric edge parallel to the warp direction and a second outermost fibre bundle defining a second fabric edge opposite the first fabric edge, the fabric having a first tapered portion including the first outermost fibre bundle, wherein a thickness of the fabric in the first tapered portion is tapering from a first fabric thickness to a second fabric thickness in a direction towards the first fabric edge. The disclosure also relates to a spar cap and a wind turbine blade shell part comprising such fabric or fabrics.

According to the present invention there is provided a wind turbine blade extending in a spanwise direction between a root and a tip, and in a chordwise direction between a leading edge and a trailing edge. The wind turbine blade has a spar cap comprising a plurality of strips of fibrous composite material. Each strip extends in the spanwise direction between a first end and a second end to define a length of the strip, and each strip has a width and a thickness, the width being less than the length, and the thickness being less than the width. Each strip has upper and lower major surfaces defined by the length and width dimensions. Each strip has side surfaces defined by the length and thickness dimensions. The plurality of strips includes a first strip and a second strip. The first strip has a tapered end portion in which the thickness of the first strip decreases towards the first end of the first strip. The tapered end portion defines a tapered end face inclined with respect to the upper and lower major surfaces of the first strip. The first and second strips are bonded together such that the first end of the first strip meets the upper or lower major surface of the second strip to define an interface between the first and second strips. The spar cap further comprises a patch arranged across the interface. The patch comprises a stack of fibrous plies.

The present invention provides a high-elastic-modulus pultruded article that is highly resistant to cracking along the fiber axis of carbon fibers. The present invention is a unidirectional composite containing carbon fibers and a matrix resin, the unidirectional composite being such that the fluctuation width of the fiber axis when a single fiber of the carbon fibers is observed from the side at a linear distance of 1 mm is 1.5 m or greater.

A wind turbine blade integrating a lightning protection system is provided. The wind turbine blade includes one spar cap formed by carbon plates stacked together; and a first down-conductor placed alongside the tip region of the spar cap, and a second down-conductor placed alongside the root region of the spar cap. The first down-conductor extends from the spar cap's tip end to the mid region, and terminates at a first down-conductor's end adjacent a first region of the spar cap which extends from a cross-sectional area of the spar cap which area is equal or higher than 75% of the maximum cross-sectional area of the spar cap, which is closest to the spar cap's tip end, to a cross-sectional area of the spar cap which is 100% of the cross-sectional area of the spar cap, being 100% of the cross-sectional area the one closest to the spar cap's root end.

A method is for repairing a shear web of a wind turbine rotor blade, wherein the shear web includes a defect at the root end, the defect running essentially along a longitudinal direction of the wind turbine rotor blade. The method includes the steps of: providing a defect-bridging device having a first cover plate and a second cover plate, both the first cover plate and the second cover plate including an inner surface and an outer surface, and bonding the first cover plate with its inner surface onto a first surface region of the shear web and bonding the second cover plate with its inner surface onto a second surface region of the shear web, such that both cover plates at least partly cover the defect. A repair assembly is for repairing a shear web of a wind turbine rotor blade.

A male spar beam for mutually attaching a segmented wind turbine blade and, comprising: a leading-edge part comprising a second upper wall, a second lower wall, and a second shear wall connecting the second upper wall with the second lower wall, the leading-edge part; and a trailing-edge part comprising a first upper wall, a first lower wall, and a first shear wall connecting the first upper wall with the first lower wall. The leading-edge and trailing-edge parts being separately formed integrally in one piece, respectively. An end of the first lower wall is attached to an end of the second lower wall so that the first lower wall and the second lower wall form a lower spar cap of the male spar beam, and an end of the first upper wall is attached to an end of the second upper wall so that the first upper wall and the second upper wall form an upper spar cap of the male spar beam.

A segmented blade module structure and a molding method thereof are disclosed. The blade module includes a blade shell, a beam and a web provided in the blade shell, and the beam comprises a connecting beam, a trailing edge beam and an auxiliary beam plate, and a connecting structure is provided at an end of the connecting beam. The beam and the web integrally formed of composite materials constitute a bearing frame that forms a contour shape conforming to the blade, and the blade shell is formed by a skin wrapped on the bearing frame. The auxiliary beam plate is arranged corresponding to the area from the middle portion to the trailing edge portion of the blade shell to ensure that there is sufficient contact area between the beam and the blade shell to avoid instability of the blade shell, ensuring the structural stability of the segmented blade module.

A wind turbine blade for a wind turbine is provided, the wind turbine blade having a tip portion and a root portion, and the wind turbine blade including a shell and a spar, the spar including two spar caps connected to one another by at least one spar web of the spar and extending in a longitudinal direction of the wind turbine blade, whereby at least one of the two spar caps is configured as a main down conductor of a lightning protection system of the wind turbine blade, the at least one main down conductor including an electrically conductive fiber-reinforced plastic being electroconductively connected to at least one electrical interface of the lightning protection system. Also provided is a wind turbine including such a wind turbine blade.

A wind turbine rotor blade portion has a root end, a tip end and a blade shell that defines a suction side, pressure side, leading edge, and a trailing edge of the blade portion. The blade shell includes a lightning conductor including a first conductive material, and at least one spar cap associated with the blade shell and including a second conductive material different than the first conductive material. An equipotential bonding element electrically bonds the lightning conductor to the spar cap. The equipotential bonding element includes a first end portion having a first metallic material adjacent the first conductive material of the lightning conductor, a second end portion opposite the first end portion and having a second metallic material adjacent the second conductive material of the spar cap, and an intermediate portion where the first metallic material is joined to the second metallic material at a joint and having an insulator encapsulating the joint for preventing exposure of the joint to an electrolyte material.

A method of making a wind turbine blade shear web. The method comprises providing a shear web mould. The shear web mould has a longitudinally-extending main surface shaped to form a main panel of the shear web, and first and second longitudinally extending side surfaces shaped to form respective first and second flange portions of the shear web. The method further comprises arranging one or more layers of fibrous material against the main surface and against the first and second side surfaces of the mould to form a layup that is generally C-shaped in cross-section. The method further comprises arranging a pre-cured return flange on the layup, providing uncured resin to the fibrous material of the layup and between the layup and the pre-cured return flange, and curing the uncured resin to co-bond the pre-cured return flange and the C-shaped layup.