Patent-family-89618846

According to the present invention there is provided a wind turbine blade comprising a blade shell that extends longitudinally in a spanwise direction from a root end to a tip end, and transversely in a chordwise direction between a leading edge and a trailing edge. The blade shell is formed from first and second opposing half shells of composite laminate construction. Each half shell comprises an inner skin on an inside of the blade shell and an outer skin on an outside of the blade shell. The blade further comprises a first spar cap located between the inner and outer skins of the first half shell and a second spar cap located between the inner and outer skins of the second half shell. The first and second spar caps are mutually opposed. The first spar cap comprises a plurality of side-by-side stacks of longitudinally-extending strips of reinforcing material, the stacks including at least one web-supporting stack and at least one non-web-supporting stack. The blade further comprises a shear web connected between the first and second spar caps. The shear web comprises a longitudinally-extending web panel and first and second mounting flanges, the first and second mounting flanges extending transversely to the web panel along respective longitudinal edges of the web panel. The first mounting flange is adhesively bonded to the inside of the first half shell in the region of the web-supporting stack(s) of the first spar cap and the second mounting flange is adhesively bonded to the inside of the second half shell in the region of the second spar cap. At a first spanwise location along the blade, the number of strips in a web-supporting stack of the first spar cap is different to the number of strips in a non-web-supporting stack of the first spar cap.