Structural analysis and optimal design of steel lattice wind turbine towers

Wind energy has shown its dominance among the means of sustainable energy production by the accelerating rise in total installed capacity and increase in size of wind energy structures. Taking into consideration the fact that the supporting structure of onshore wind power generators constitutes approximately one-third of the initial construction cost, structural optimisation of the tower is considered crucial towards the minimisation of capital expenditure during construction. Contemporary energy needs employ the construction of constantly taller and more powerful wind power converters, whose robust design in parallel with compression of initial capital expenditure cannot be neglected. The dominant structural configuration for onshore wind power generators is the tapered steel tower, but lattice towers using enhanced special cross-sections can be a rather promising solution towards economy of material use. The present paper addresses the structural performance and optimisation of tubular and lattice steel wind turbine towers, examining alternative configuration solutions for a given height and rotor characteristics. The finite-element software Abaqus has been used for the implementation of the structural models and an algorithm has been elaborated in Mathematica software in order to allow for optimisation of the use of the cross-section in the case of lattice towers.