Study Of Design Of Concrete Foundations For Turbines PDF Download

The use of wind power to generate electricity continues to grow, especially given commitments by various countries throughout the world to ensure that a significant percentage of energy comes from renewable sources. In order to meet such objectives, increasingly larger turbines with higher capacity are being developed. The engineering aspects of larger turbine development tend to focus on design and materials for blades and towers. However, foundations are also a critical component of large wind turbines and represent a significant cost of wind energy projects. Ongoing wind research at BNL is examining two areas: (a) structural response analysis of wind turbine-tower-foundation systems and (b) materials engineering of foundations. This work is investigating the dynamic interactions in wind turbine systems, which in turn assists the wind industry in achieving improved reliability and more cost efficient foundation designs. The results reported herein cover initial studies of concrete mix designs for large wind turbine foundations and how these may be tailored to reduce cost and incorporate sustainability and life cycle concepts. The approach taken was to investigate material substitutions so that the environmental, energy and CO2-impact of concrete could be reduced. The use of high volumes of ''waste'' materials in concrete was examined. These materials included fly ash, blast furnace slag and recycled concrete aggregate. In addition, the use of steel fiber reinforcement as a means to improve mechanical properties and potentially reduce the amount of bar reinforcement in concrete foundations was studied. Four basic mixes were considered. These were: (1) conventional mix with no material substitutions, (2) 50% replacement of cement with fly ash, (3) 50% replacement of cement with blast furnace slag and (4) 25% replacement of cement with fly ash and 25% replacement with blast furnace slag. Variations on these mixes included the addition of 1% by volume steel fibers. The use of recycled concrete aggregate in the conventional and 50% slag mixes was also studied. Properties investigated included compressive and tensile strengths, elastic modulus, coefficient of permeability, thermal conductivity and durability in seawater and sulfate solutions. It was determined that the mixes containing 50% slag gave the best overall performance. Slag was particularly beneficial for concrete that used recycled aggregate and could reduce strength losses. Initial durability results indicated that corrosion of fibers in the different concrete mixes when exposed to seawater was minimal. Future research needs to include more detailed studies of mix design and properties of concrete for wind turbine foundations. Emphasis on slag-modified mixes with natural and recycled concrete aggregate is recommended. The proportion of slag that can be incorporated in the concrete needs to be optimized, as does the grading of recycled aggregate. The potential for using silica fume in conjunction with slag is worth exploring as this may further enhance strength and durability. Longer-term durability studies are necessary and other pertinent properties of concrete that require investigation include damping characteristics, pullout strength, fatigue strength and risk of thermal cracking. The properties of sustainable concrete mixes need to be integrated with studies on the structural behavior of wind turbine foundations in order to determine the optimal mix design and to examine means of reducing conservatism and cost of foundations.