Vulnerability of steel towers of wind turbines considering damage caused by fatigue

2^nd World Congress and Exhibition on Construction & Steel Structure

September 22-24, 2016 Las Vegas, USA

Daniela Jose-Cruz, Sonia E Ruiz and Adri�?¡n Pozos-Estrada

Universidad Nacional Aut�?³noma de M�?©xico, M�?©xico

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Civil Environ Eng

Abstract :

An approach is proposed to evaluate the reliability over time of steel tubular towers of wind turbines, taking into account the structural damage accumulation caused by fatigue at the base of the tower. This is an important issue because in some cases fatigue could govern the design of steel towers. The general steps of the approach are: 1) Simulate a turbulent wind field for different mean wind speeds (in our case these are between 1 m/s and 30 m/s); 2) Calculate force time histories of turbulent wind and apply them along the height of the steel tower; 3) Perform â�?�?step by stepâ�? time analyses, and obtain the stress time histories at the base of the structure; then, obtain the effective stress information corresponding to each mean velocity. Steps 1, 2 and 3 are repeated for different mean velocities; 4) Using the Monte Carlo technique, simulate the service life of the wind turbine and obtain the statistical characteristics of the crack growth due to fatigue at the base of the tubular structure; 5) Obtain fragility curves of the steel tower for different time intervals (20, 30 and 70 years). The steel tower of the horizontal wind turbine analyzed is located in a windy zone, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Biography :

Email: DJoseC@iingen.unam.mx