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Steel Hybrid Onshore Wind Towers Installed with Minimal Effort

Short description

The proposed work aims to develop a steel hybrid solution for onshore wind turbine towers using a lattice structure for the lower portion of the tower and a tubular upper portion. The solution is targeted at tall onshore applications (hub height 120 – 220 meters), required by increasingly powerful wind turbines or in situations where wind shear profile is clearly benefiting higher turbines.
The work will focus on:

  • the erection process, in which the lattice portion of the tower is used as support for the installation of the upper tubular part of the tower and the turbine,
  • the use of a new type of steel for bolts and high strength steel grades for critical parts of the tower (e.g. the transition between the lattice and tubular parts).
  • the optimization of design and construction of a low maintenance truss structure for increasing design life.

The work packages and the partnership are formed in order to address the following issues:

i) Optimal proportions and geometry of lattice and tubular parts of the hybrid structure, considering transport and crane size constraints. Conceptual design of several case studies will be performed for this purpose.

ii) Competitiveness of solution in terms of structural performance and life cycle assessment

Research program

RFCS - Research Fund for Coal and Steel

Partners

Duration of project

07 / 2015 - 06 / 2018

Contact person

Carl Richter