AISC

Computational Assessment of the Residual Stresses of a Wind Turbine Tower Steel Shell and their Effect on its Buckling Capacity

As wind energy structures and especially wind turbine tower structures are becoming more popular over the years, their design has also evolved significantly. The increasing demand for more wind turbine towers has led to their increase in energy production and consequently to their height increase. This increase comes with many challenges for the mechanics of the tower itself as these towers now exceed heights of 140m. The most commonly used structural system for these towers is a cylindrical or conical steel shell tower which is highly vulnerable to residual stresses effects. This effect is more profound for inelastic buckling modes which are relatively common for wind turbine tower geometries. This paper presents ongoing work which is intended to lead to a computational assessment of the residual stresses for a wind turbine steel shell specimen and then study the effect on how residual stresses reduce the critical buckling load of the specimen.

  • Date: 3/23/2017
  • PDH Credits: 0

Author

Simos Gerasimidis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

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