Redesign of a wind turbine hub

Author(s)
Hunter-Jones, Bridget I
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor
Sanjay Sarma.
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Abstract
The current designs of wind turbine hubs contain many faults. The slew ring bearing that connects the blade to the hub takes on a large bending moment that in many cases causes the joints to fail and the blade to break off. The design of the hub is very large, heavy, and expensive to machine. The objective of this research is to reappraise the existing design of wind turbine hub and to suggest an alternative design, which does not have the design faults that are currently found. Drawings and sketches are presented along with all necessary calculations for the current and new wind turbine hub. The proposed redesign of the hub will have a bearing pack that will distribute the load of the blade and a new hub which is lighter, less complex, and simple to machine. This new design will be much safer than the current design and will produce more reliable wind turbines.
Description
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2014.
 
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
 
Includes bibliographical references (page 27).
 
Date issued
2014
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92187
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Mechanical Engineering.
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