Toroid Liquid Damper With Vertical Ribs for Wind Tower Oscillation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional liquid dampers for wind turbine towers face limitations in effectively damping low natural frequencies and are prone to rotational modes during elliptical oscillations, leading to reduced damping effectiveness and potential structural damage, especially during assembly and transport stages.
Innovation Solution
A toroid damper design featuring a horizontal base-plate, top-plate, cylindrical outer and inner walls, and vertical ribs to disrupt liquid motion, allowing full utilization of space and maintaining damping performance across various oscillation modes, with adjustable bulkheads for frequency matching during different operational stages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a toroid damper is used to damp low natural frequencies, then the damping effectiveness is improved, but the damper may enter into a rotational mode during elliptical oscillations, causing the damping effect to be lost
Solution Approach 1:
The toroid damper is divided into multiple compartments by vertical partitions, which segment the liquid mass into smaller independent sections. This segmentation prevents the liquid from rotating as a single mass during elliptical oscillations, eliminating the rotational mode while maintaining the damping effectiveness for low natural frequencies.
2Area of stationary object
If the damper width is limited to fit beside cable bundles, then the space utilization is improved, but the maximum width constraint prevents effective damping of tower frequencies below a certain threshold
Solution Approach 1:
The damper is designed with a nested structure where the toroid container is positioned within the tower cross-section, utilizing the available space efficiently. The vertical partitions are nested within the toroid structure, allowing the damper to maintain a compact width that fits beside cable bundles while still providing sufficient liquid mass for damping low frequencies.
3Reliability
If the damper is configured for low-frequency damping during operation, then the damping performance is improved, but the tower incurs structural damage during assembly and transport stages when oscillation frequency is higher
Solution Approach 1:
The vertical partitions are designed to be movable rather than fixed, allowing the damper configuration to adapt dynamically. During assembly and transport, the partitions can be positioned to provide appropriate damping for higher oscillation frequencies, while during normal operation they maintain the configuration optimized for low-frequency damping, thus protecting the tower throughout all stages.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The toroid damper provides consistent and effective damping across low natural frequencies, preventing structural damage and fatigue, and simplifies the assembly and transport processes by ensuring effective damping throughout the wind turbine's lifecycle.
Implementation Method 1
The liquid tends to slosh back and forth in the opposite direction as the tower
Implementation Method 2
a sufficiently large quantity of liquid can be effective at damping tower oscillations
Implementation Method 3
an arrangement of vertical ribs mounted to a cylindrical wall of the damper
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The invention describes a liquid damper (1) for a wind turbine tower (20), comprising a damper housing (10) formed from a horizontal lower annulus (10B), a horizontal upper annulus (10T), an essentially cylindrical outer vertical wall (10W1) and an essentially cylindrical inner vertical wall (10W2), wherein the outer diameter (10D) of the damper (10) corresponds to the interior diameter (20D) of the tower (20); an operational volume of liquid (L) contained in the damper (1); and an arrangement of vertical ribs (10R) mounted to a vertical wall (10W1, 10W2) of the damper (10). The invention further describes a method of assembling a wind turbine (2).