US 11,746,744 B2
Equipotential bonding of wind turbine rotor blade
Lasse Lykkegaard, Herning (DK); Rens Christiaan Verhoef, Ringkøbing (DK); Gurmukh Singh, Skjern (DK); Nathan A. Brilliant, Arvada, CO (US); and Toby Collard, Cowes (GB)
Assigned to Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Aarhus N (DK)
Appl. No. 17/781,397
Filed by Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Aarhus N (DK)
PCT Filed Dec. 2, 2020, PCT No. PCT/DK2020/050342
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 1, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/110225, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 10, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/943,396, filed on Dec. 4, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. PA 2020 70046 (DK), filed on Jan. 23, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0003186 A1, Jan. 5, 2023
Int. Cl. F03D 1/06 (2006.01); F03D 80/30 (2016.01)
CPC F03D 1/0675 (2013.01) [F03D 80/30 (2016.05); F05B 2280/6003 (2013.01)] 26 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A wind turbine rotor blade having a root end and a tip end, comprising:
a wind turbine blade shell that defines a suction side, pressure side, leading edge, and a trailing edge of the blade;
at least one spar cap associated with the blade shell and including a conductive material;
a lightning conductor; and
an equipotential bonding element electrically bonding the lightning conductor to the spar cap,
wherein the blade shell includes a plurality of stacks of fibre plies, each stack of fibre plies has an inboard edge towards the root end of the blade, an outboard edge towards the tip end of the blade, a forward edge towards the leading edge of the blade, and a rear edge towards the trailing edge of the blade,
wherein the equipotential bonding element extends between an outboard edge of one stack and an inboard edge of an adjacent stack which overlap to define an overlapping region extending across the spar cap.