Wind Turbine Tower Section Asymmetric Connector Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing size of wind turbine towers poses challenges in terms of transportation, assembly, and maintaining tensile strength while minimizing the risk of buckling, while also needing to control manufacturing costs and assembly time.
Innovation Solution
A wind turbine tower section design featuring tubular elements stacked edge-to-edge with element and segment connectors arranged on specific surfaces to enhance tensile strength, allowing for easy transportation and assembly, with a polygonal cross-section for improved wind resistance and manufacturing simplicity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If tower size is increased to improve energy efficiency, then energy generation capability is improved, but transportation and assembly difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tower is divided into multiple transportable sections, each section further divided into wall segments that can be assembled on-site. This allows the tower to achieve great overall height while maintaining manageable transportation and assembly characteristics for individual components.
2Use of energy by moving object
If tower height and diameter are increased, then energy efficiency is improved, but risk of buckling and structural failure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tower employs a curved, frustoconical geometry rather than straight cylindrical sections. This curved configuration provides superior structural stability and resistance to buckling forces while maintaining the necessary height and diameter for energy efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The tower utilizes composite wall segments with optimized material properties to achieve the necessary strength-to-weight ratio, allowing great height while minimizing buckling risk through enhanced structural integrity.
3Strength
If multiple connectors are used to assemble tower segments, then structural integrity is improved, but assembly time and complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Connectors are pre-positioned and integrated with wall segments during manufacturing, so that during on-site assembly, the connectors are already in place and ready for immediate connection, eliminating the need for separate connector installation steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The design integrates multiple connector functions into unified connector structures that simultaneously provide structural connection and alignment features, reducing the total number of separate components and assembly operations required.
4Strength
If connectors are arranged on both inner and outer surfaces, then tensile strength is improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The connector arrangement employs asymmetric positioning where element connectors and segment connectors are deliberately placed on different surfaces (inner vs. outer) in a non-uniform pattern. This asymmetric arrangement achieves optimal tensile strength distribution while simplifying manufacturing compared to symmetric dual-surface configurations.
Data Source
AI summary
A tower section (1) for wind turbine including a wall including an inner surface (12) and an outer surface (13), the tower section including at least two tubular tower elements (14) stacked and connected together by element connectors (36) each extending astride the two tower elements, each tower element including at least two wall segments (16), connected together by segment connectors (26), the element connectors being arranged on only one of the wall surfaces and the segment connectors being arranged only on the other wall surface and no element connector facing at least partially a segment connector in a radial direction such that the wall is at no point interposed between this element connector and a segment connector.