Considerations for the structural analysis and design of wind turbine towers: A review

Hernandez-Estrada, Edwin; Danguillecourt, Orlando Lastres; Robles-Ocampo, J.B.; Lopez-Lopez, Andres; Sevilla-Camacho, P. Y.; Perez-Sariñana, Bianca Yadira; Dorrego-Portela, J. R.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.110447

Cited by 62 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…The typical structural characteristics of WTTs determine the properties of their loading response to a significant extent. Steel and concrete are the principal materials for wind turbine towers [16]. There are three basic design features for steel structures: Tubular, lattice, or hybrid towers, with the latter combining a lattice structure at the lower part and a tubular structure at the upper part [17].…”

Section: Wind Turbine Tower Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The design of offshore foundations depends on the depth of the water and the soil conditions [16]. The water depths are classified by three main categories, shallow (0-30 m), transitional (30-50 m), and deep water (>50 m).…”

Section: Offshore Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been found that controlling the structural vibration of a wind turbine tower may lead to a longer lifetime due to the decreases in the foundation and fatigue loads [99]. The dynamic structural behavior of WTTs is the most studied topic, focusing on natural frequencies, vibrations modes, resonance, and damping estimation [16]. Resonance is avoided by designing the tower's structural fundamental frequency to be far removed from the rotor frequency (1P) and the three-blade passing frequency (3P) [100].…”

Section: Vibration Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent Advances in Vibration Control Methods for Wind Turbine Towers

2021

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Wind power is a substantial resource to assist global efforts on the decarbonization of energy. The drive to increase capacity has led to ever-increasing blade tip heights and lightweight, slender towers. These structures are subject to a variety of environmental loads that give rise to vibrations with potentially catastrophic consequences, making the mitigation of the tower’s structural vibrations an important factor for low maintenance requirements and reduced damage risk. Recent advances in the most important vibration control methods for wind turbine towers are presented in this paper, exploring the impact of the installation environment harshness on the performance of state-of-the-art devices. An overview of the typical structural characteristics of a modern wind turbine tower is followed by a discussion of typical damages and their link to known collapse cases. Furthermore, the vibration properties of towers in harsh multi-hazard environments are presented and the typical design options are discussed. A comprehensive review of the most promising passive, active, and semi-active vibration control methods is conducted, focusing on recent advances around novel concepts and analyses of their performance under multiple environmental loads, including wind, waves, currents, and seismic excitations. The review highlights the benefits of installing structural systems in reducing the vibrational load of towers and therefore increasing their structural reliability and resilience to extreme events. It is also found that the stochastic nature of the typical tower loads remains a key issue for the design and the performance of the state-of-the-art vibration control methods.

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Section: Wind Turbine Tower Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Offshore Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Vibration Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent Advances in Vibration Control Methods for Wind Turbine Towers

2021

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“…Wind turbines are the crucial equipment for wind energy to be converted into electricity. In terms of wind turbines’ material properties, the tower requires high strength and stiffness to ensure proper operation of the wind turbine [ 2 ]. However, the collapse of wind turbine towers has not stopped, and in September 2019, a GE wind turbine collapsed at Delta 6 wind farm in Maranhão, Brazil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tensile Damage Study of Wind Turbine Tower Material Q345 Based on an Acoustic Emission Method

et al. 2021

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As essential load-bearing equipment to support the nacelle and blades, the tower is subjected to the whole wind turbine loading. This study proposes a new method of combining acoustic emission and normalized accumulation parameters to characterize wind turbine towers Q345 steel damage. First of all, tendency analysis of the acoustic emission signal parameter was conducted to determine damage degree during the damage stage. Secondly, we normalized the accumulation of amplitude and other parameters to compare the proportion of each accumulation parameter at different stages, while studying the spectra of common acoustic emission signals. Finally, comparing the differences and similarities of the normalized accumulation parameters between three different rates, we analyze the effect of rate on the normalized accumulation parameters. These results indicate that the normalized cumulative duration parameter is suitable for characterizing the yield damage occurrence, the normalized cumulative energy parameter is very sensitive to the fracture stage, the normalized cumulative energy parameter is least influenced by the loading rate, and the energy parameter is a sensitivity factor for normalized expression, which to realizes the stage of damage judgment.

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“…The structural design of such towers has attracted the attention of many researchers (i.e., references [11][12][13][14][15][16]). Prevailing failure modes that dictate the design and determine the required cross-sections are the buckling of the tubular shells [17][18][19], fatigue of the connections [20][21][22] and avoidance of resonance between the tower's fundamental frequencies and the rotor and blade-passing frequencies, denoted as 1P and 3P, respectively [10,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Tripod Concept for Onshore Wind Turbine Towers

Gantes

Billi

Güldogan³

et al. 2021

Energies

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A wind turbine tower assembly is presented, consisting of a lower “tripod section” and an upper tubular steel section, aiming at enabling very tall hub heights for optimum exploitation of the wind potential. The foundation consists of sets of piles connected at their top by a common pile cap below each tripod leg. The concept can be applied for the realization of new or the upgrade of existing wind turbine towers. It is adjustable to both onshore and offshore towers, but emphasis is directed towards overcoming the stricter onshore transportability constraints. For that purpose, pre-welded individual tripod parts are transported and are then bolted together during erection, contrary to fully pre-welded tripods that have been used in offshore towers. Alternative constructional details of the tripod joints are therefore proposed that address the fabrication, transportability, on-site erection and maintenance requirements and can meet structural performance criteria. The main structural features are demonstrated by means of a typical case study comprising a 180-m-tall tower, consisting of a 120-m-tall tubular superstructure on top of a 60-m-tall tripod substructure. Realistic cross-sections are calculated, leading to weight and cost estimations, thus demonstrating the feasibility and competitiveness of the concept.

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Considerations for the structural analysis and design of wind turbine towers: A review

Cited by 62 publications

References 84 publications

Recent Advances in Vibration Control Methods for Wind Turbine Towers

Recent Advances in Vibration Control Methods for Wind Turbine Towers

Tensile Damage Study of Wind Turbine Tower Material Q345 Based on an Acoustic Emission Method

A Novel Tripod Concept for Onshore Wind Turbine Towers

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