Improvement of the structural response of steel tubular wind turbine towers by means of stiffeners

摘要

In the thesis the structural response of steel tubular wind turbine towers with various design configurations is analysed using FEM modelling. First, a structural response simulation model was validated by comparison with the existing experimental data. This was then followed with a mesh density sensitivity analysis to obtain the optimum element size. Based on this outcome, towers of various heights between 50-250m are considered and investigated with three different design options as follows: (i) thick walled tower with internal horizontal stiffening rings, (ii) thick walled tower without stiffening rings and (iii) thin walled tower with stiffening rings. Based on this analysis, weight reduction ratios are examined in relation to the horizontal sway and von Mises stress increase ratios in order to identify a more efficient design approach between reducing the wall thickness and adopting internal stiffeners. All studied design solutions satisfy the strength and serviceability requirements as specified by the design codes of practice.