Wind turbine dynamic - application to foundations

Abstract: These latest years, the green energy is highlighted and new technologies appeared. It is the case for wind turbines. The aim of latest developments has been to increase the power output. The use of new material enables the design of wind turbine with an impressive height, more and more flexible, inducing significant dynamic forces. However, several problems have been encountered on the connection between the foundation and the tower, which threaten the entire integrity of the structure. The initial lifetime could be impacted. The first aims of the master thesis are to understand the dynamic behavior of a wind turbine, determine the resultant forces at the foundation in order to explain the issues encountered at the foundation level on site, and compare these results with the resultant forces given by the wind turbine manufacturer. Indeed, the constructor transmits to the civil engineer one or more resultants forces without justifications in order to design the foundation. These loads are often issued from extreme load case. The analysis of the serviceability limit state is not well realized. It is this resultant force in operation which must be determined in this master thesis. After having presented the history of wind turbines, the different parts and the model use for the wind; the blade element model is used to calculate the forces of the wind on the rotor. These forces calculated from the theory used are eventually compared with the provider data. The turbulence component of the wind on the tower is evaluated by a spectral method and a fluid structure interaction with the software Abaqus. The inertial effects of the tower are calculated in order to give an order of magnitude of the resultant load on the foundations. This knowledge enables to analyze the connection in serviceability limit state which is another aim of the study. An analysis of the connection is done in order to get an idea of the risks. In particular, the punching resistance and the stability of the structure are verified.