A Study on the Design and Material Costs of Tall Wind Turbine Towers in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this project is to study the structural design and costing of various designs of tallwind turbine towers and the associated foundations in a South African context. Speci c designguidelines are proposed for the design of tubular steel, concrete and concrete-steel hybrid towersand foundations for hub heights of 80, 100 and 120m. Additionally, a conclusion will be madeas to whether the concrete and hybrid towers are a viable alternative to steel towers at higherhub heights.To accomplish this, three of each type of tower (steel concrete and hybrid) and their foundationswere designed according to the relevant design standards. The designs were then veri ed usingthe Abaqusnite element software. The costs of the designs for a South African environmentwere subsequently calculated according to the increases in material cost, as a function of theincrease in hub height.It was found that for the chosen design assumptions, the foundations for the concrete and hybridtowers are less material intensive, and therefore cheaper, than the steel towers. The materialcosts of the concrete and hybrid towers were also shown to be lower than the material costs ofthe steel towers, especially at hub heights of 100 to 120m. For the circumstances in this project,it was found that an increase in hub height causes an increase in energy generation of 3.52 and6.28 percent for 80m to 100m and 80m to 120m hub heights, respectively. It is therefore deducedthat, given the trends in the design and cost associated with increasing hub heights, the concreteand hybrid towers become viable alternatives to the conventional steel towers at hub heights of100 to 120m in height.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University