Experimental Study on Mechanical Behavior of Wind Turbine Frustum Tower
Bin Li, Chun Yan Gao, Hai Lei Sun · Applied Mechanics and Materials · 2013
One scale model of 1.5MW wind turbine frustum tower in Baiyun Obo was carried on pseudo-static test. The failure mechanism and characteristics, stress changes and distribution laws, hysteresis performance and ultimate bearing capacity were studied. Test results show that the wind turbine tower belong to the sudden extreme point instability failure; the buckling bearing capacity is as the ultimate bearing capacity of tower. The maximum stresses of tower mainly distribute at the variable wall thickness section and bottom, while other parts basically dont yield. This indicate that the material utilization of this kind of tower structure remains relatively low, structural design has yet to be improved, at the same time recommends that reasonable strengthen measures should be taken at the weakest part of tower. The P-Δ hysteretic curve of tower shows anti-"S" shape, the overall strength and stiffness degenerate more rapidly, which indicates that the plastic deformation and energy dissipation capacity of frustum tower is poor. The test conclusions could reflect the stress condition of prototype tower and provide references for design.