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Title

Modelling of friction connection for wind towers: finite element simulation

Authors

Abstract

The tubular steel towers supporting wind turbines account for about 15 to 20% of the total installation costs and their optimisation may lead to substantial savings with regard to costs and use of material. An important aspect of the design is the connection between tower’s sections. The present assembling detail between two segments of the tubular tower is accomplished by conventional ring flange connection where pairs of heavy steel flanges are welded on the inside of the tubes and bolted together with pre-tensioned high strength bolts as shown in Fig. 1.
A new friction joint has been developed in the recently finished RFCS research project HISTWIN (High-Strength Steel Tower for Wind Turbine) where open slotted holes has been used to facilitate the assembly of the tubular tower as shown in Fig. 2.
This paper focuses on the Finite Element (FE) modelling of the friction connection using the commercial software Abaqus. An axial force on the tower is considered to illustrate the behaviour of the connection.

References

[1] Abaqus Analysis User’s manual version 6.10, Dassault Systèmes Simulia Corp., Providence, 2010
[2] European Committee for Standardization (CEN), EN 1993-1-8, “Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures. Part 1-8:Design of joints”, Brussels, 2005
[3] European Committee for Standardization (CEN), EN 1993-1-6, “Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures. Part 1-6:Strength and stability of shell structures”, Brussels, 2005
[4] Veljkovic, M, [et al.], “HISTWIN – High-Strength Steel Tower for Wind Turbine”, Grant agreement n° RFSR-CT-2006-00031, RFCS Publications, European Commission, Brussels, 2011

Files

A-0377.pdf

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