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Rapid seismic analysis methodology for in-service wind turbine towers

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Abstract

The wind energy industry has been growing rapidly during the past decades. Along with this growth, engineering problems have gradually emerged in the wind power industry, including those related to the structural reliability of turbine towers. This study proposes a rapid seismic analysis methodology for existing wind turbine tower structures. The method is demonstrated and validated using a case study on a 1.5 MW tubular steel wind turbine tower. Three finite element (FE) models are developed first. Field tests are conducted to obtain the turbine tower's vibrational characteristics. The tests include (1) remotely measuring the tower vibration frequencies using a long range laser Doppler Vibrometer and (2) monitoring the tower structural vibration by mounting accelerometers along the height of the tubular structure. In-situ measurements are used to validate and update the FE models of the wind turbine tower. With the updated FE model that represents the practical structural conditions, seismic analyses are performed to study the structural failure, which is defined by the steel yielding of the tubular tower. This research is anticipated to benefit the management of the increasing number of wind energy converters by providing an understanding of the seismic assessment of existing tubular steel wind turbine towers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering and College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Kaoshan Dai, Yichao Huang, Changqing Gong & Xiaosong Ren

  2. State Key Lab of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Kaoshan Dai

  3. Department of Engineering Technology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, 76207, USA

    Zhenhua Huang

  4. College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Rd., Shanghai, 200092, China

    Kaoshan Dai

Authors
  1. Kaoshan Dai
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  2. Yichao Huang
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  3. Changqing Gong
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  4. Zhenhua Huang
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  5. Xiaosong Ren
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kaoshan Dai.

Additional information

Supported by: National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51208382, Shanghai Science Foundation under Grant No. 12ZR1433500, Shanghai Pujiang Scholar Program under Grant No. 13PJ1407900, Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education under Grant No. 20120072120001, State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology under Grant No. 2007DA10512711414, State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering under Grant No. SLDRCE14-B-02, and Tongji University Testing Facility Funding under Grant No. 2012096

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Dai, K., Huang, Y., Gong, C. et al. Rapid seismic analysis methodology for in-service wind turbine towers. Earthq. Eng. Eng. Vib. 14, 539–548 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-015-0043-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-015-0043-0

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