CONCEPT AND DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL BLADE STRUCTURE OF LARGE HORIZONTAL-AXIS WIND TURBINE

During the development of large-scale horizontal axis wind turbines, the major problem is the contradiction among the structure reliability and the requirement of light weight and aerodynamics efficiency. The structural characteristics of a traditional cantilever blade has restricted the further development of large wind turbines. The novel form of a blade structure is the effective solution to the problem, such as bionic flexible blades, segmented blades and multi-element blades. This paper reviews the state of the art of novel blade structures in recent years, providing some references for large blade design.