Wind Turbine Tower with Converging Guy Wires
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional wind turbine towers face limitations in bearing capacity and stiffness due to size constraints, and existing tethered towers require complex cable management and tensioning to handle dynamic loads, which complicates erection and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A wind turbine tower design featuring cables that converge within the tower wall thickness to reduce bending moments, with cables attached at specific heights and angles to distribute forces primarily through tension and compression, and a method for erecting the tower by attaching cables at ground level and lifting sections with attached cables, simplifying handling and tensioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the tower shell thickness is increased to improve bearing capacity and stiffness, then the bearing capacity increases linearly, but the weight and complexity of the tower increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses guy wires (cables) anchored to the ground as counterbalancing elements to provide support to the tower. These external support elements counteract the gravitational and wind loads on the tower, allowing the tower shell to be thinner and lighter while maintaining adequate bearing capacity and stiffness.
2Strength
If the tower diameter is increased to improve bearing capacity and stiffness, then the bearing capacity increases with the diameter squared and stiffness with the diameter cubed, but the transport and installation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
By introducing guy wires as external support elements anchored to the ground, the tower can achieve adequate bearing capacity and stiffness without requiring a large diameter. This allows the tower to be designed with a smaller, more transportable diameter while maintaining structural integrity through the counterbalancing effect of the tensioned cables.
3Stability of the object's composition
If guy wires are added to increase bearing capacity and reduce oscillations, then the tower stability improves, but the land usage and complexity of erection and maintenance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guy wires are strategically positioned and tensioned to provide localized support where needed, allowing the tower to achieve stability with minimal land usage. The anchoring points are placed at optimized locations to maximize the stabilizing effect while minimizing the footprint.
4Strength
If cables are attached to the tower at multiple points to distribute loads, then the load distribution improves, but the complexity of cable tensioning and attachment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cable attachment functions into integrated attachment elements that are built into the tower structure. The attachment elements are designed to accommodate multiple cables and provide centralized tensioning points, simplifying the cable tensioning and attachment process while maintaining effective load distribution.
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
This design enhances the tower's stiffness and strength while reducing oscillations and land usage, facilitating faster and safer erection by managing cables effectively during construction.
Implementation Method 1
The cables provide stability to the tower to reduce oscillations from wind and reduces the loads in the part of the tower below the cables considerably
Implementation Method 2
the forces from each cable in a pair as seen in a horizontal plane will be partly equalized or taken up primarily by a normal force in the tower shell. In this way the stresses are taken up by the tower shell primarily in tension and compression rather than in bending
Data Source
AI summary
A wind turbine tower configured to support a wind turbine nacelle and a rotor, and with a tower wall of an inner surface and an outer surface. The tower is tethered by a number of cables, each cable extending between a first end anchored to an anchoring element and an opposite, second end attached to the tower at an attachment element. Two cables extending from two different anchoring elements are attached to the tower such that longitudinal projection lines from the second ends of the two cables converge at a convergence point, which lies at a location at a certain height and inside the tower wall thickness. Alternatively, the convergence point lies inside the tower within a distance of three wall thicknesses from the wall inner surface as measured at the height and in a direction perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis of the tower. The invention further relates to a method of erecting a wind turbine tower tethered by cables and configured for supporting a rotor assembly, and wherein the tower comprises a number of tower sections joined to each other. The method comprises positioning a first tower section, attaching at least some of the tethering cables to a second tower section while the second tower section is on the ground, lifting the second tower section with the attached cables onto the first tower section, and joining the second tower section to the first.