Repowering Steel Tubular Wind Turbine Towers Enhancing them by Internal Stiffening Rings

Yu Hu, Jian Yang and Charalampos Baniotopoulos
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Yu Hu: School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Jian Yang: School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Charalampos Baniotopoulos: School of Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: This paper presents a robust repowering approach to the structural response of tubular steel wind turbine towers enhanced by internal stiffening rings. 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. When the outdated wind turbine system needs to be upgraded, the wall thickness, the mid-section width-to-thickness ratio and the spacing of the stiffening rings of wind turbine tower were considered as the critical design variables for repowering. The efficiency repowering range of these design variables of wind turbine towers of various heights between 50 and 250 m can be provided through the numerical analysis. Finally, the results of efficiency repowering range of design variables can be used to propose a new optimum design of the wind turbine system when repowering a wind farm.

Keywords: wind turbine tower; shell structure; finite element analysis; stiffening ring; sensitivity analysis; repowering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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