Wind Turbine Tower Failure Modes under Seismic and Wind Loads
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 33, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper studies the structural responses and failure modes of a 1.5-MW horizontal-axis wind turbine under strong ground motions and wind loading. Ground motions were selected and scaled to match the two design response spectra given by the seismic code, and wind loads were generated considering tropical cyclone scenarios. Nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses were conducted and structural performances under wind loads as well as short- and long-period ground motions compared. The results show that under strong wind loads the collapse of the wind turbine tower is driven by the formation of a plastic hinge at the lower section of the tower. This area is also critical when the tower is subject to most ground motions. However, some short-period earthquakes trigger the collapse of the middle and upper parts of the tower due to the increased contribution of high-order vibration modes. Although long-period ground motions tend to result in greater structural responses, short-period earthquakes may cause brittle failure modes in which the full plastic hinge develops quickly in regions of the tower with only a moderate energy dissipation capacity. Based on these results, recommendations for future turbine designs are proposed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1710111), International Collaboration Program of Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (Grant No. 2016YFE0105600), International Collaboration Program of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 16510711300) and Sichuan Province (Grant No. 18GJHZ0111), the 111 Project (Grant No. B18062), and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of China (Grant Nos. 20822041B4178 and 0200219230).
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 33 • Issue 2 • April 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 2, 2018
Accepted: Sep 24, 2018
Published online: Jan 31, 2019
Published in print: Apr 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Jun 30, 2019
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