Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Vibration Mitigation of Wind Turbine
Towers with Tuned Mass Dampers
Okyay Altay, Francesca Taddei, Christoph Butenweg
and Sven Klinkel
Abstract Because of its minor environmental impact, electricity generation using
wind power is getting remarkable. The further growth of the wind industry
depends on technological solutions to the challenges in production and construc-
tion of the turbines. Wind turbine tower vibrations, which limit power generation
efficiency and cause fatigue problems with high maintenance costs, count as one of
the main structural difficulties in the wind energy sector. To mitigate tower
vibrations auxiliary measures are necessary. The effectiveness of tuned mass
damper is verified by means of a numeric study on a 5 MW onshore reference
wind turbine. Hereby, also seismic-induced vibrations and soil-structure interac-
tion are considered. Acquired results show that tuned mass damper can effectively
reduce resonant tower vibrations and improve the fatigue life of wind turbines.
This chapter is also concerned with tuned liquid column damper and a semiactive
application of it. Due to its geometric versatility and low prime costs, tuned liquid
column dampers are a good alternative to other damping measures, in particular
for slender structures like wind turbines.
Keywords Structural control
Tuned mass damper
Tuned liquid column
damper
Semiactive
Soil-structure interaction
Nomenclature
In appearance order:
d
s
;
d
A
Logarithmic damping decrement-Structural and aerodynamic
D
Damping ratio
K
FS
, C
FS
, M
FS
Stiffness, damping coefficient, and mass of the foundation-soil
system
S
FS
Dynamic stiffness of foundation-soil system
X
Excitation frequency
