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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