TOWERS: TYPES, FUNCTION, METERIAL REQUIREMENT, METERIAL

JUSTIFICATION.
Tower are the supporting structure for wind mill which carry load generated
from turbine. There are different types of wind mill towers, some are 1.
Lattice tower 2. Tubular tower, 3.Hybrid towers. Pitchers are shown below.

1. Lattice tower

2. Tubular towers

3. Hybrid towers

As the cost of the tower is a significant portion of the overall wind turbine
system
Cost, they are often optimized in order to minimize the cost of the tower.

1. Lattice tower

The lattice tower is made from trusses or frames that are bolted or welded
together as
Shown in Figure.The initial cost to build a lattice tower is less than
The tubular tower because it requires less material for similar stiffness.The
assembly and maintenance Costs may be higher as each bolt needs to be
torqued to a specification and checked periodically.
2. Tubular towers
The tubular tower is shown in Figure.It has a pipe cross-section. Many tubular
Towers are either tapered (conical) or stepped which has increasing diameter
towards the bottom. In addition, for stepped tubular towers, the thickness of
the wall can
Be varied along the height of the tower in order to save the material while
satisfying the structural requirements.Although the initial material cost may
be higher than the
Lattice tower, it does not rely on many bolted-connections which need to be
torqued and checked periodically.
3. Hybrid tower
The hybrid tower combines different configurations of the wind turbine tower.
The hybrid tower shown in Figure.It is called stayed design which combines
steel tube, steel truss and guy-wire.The tubular type has a major section size
limitation of about 4.3 m for larger turbines. This limit may result in site
welding and fabrication which may compromise the quality of the tower.

PROPERTIES REQUIRED FOR TOWERS

The towers are required to be strong enough to support the weight of
the blades and generator/nacelles.
They must also withstand fluctuating wind loading and loading
resulting from turbine blade rotation.

This means that the towers must be stiff and strong. They do not need
to be particularly light if positioned on-shore, although all foundations
will be cheaper if the overall turbine weight is low.

Transport to location is an issue and it will help if the tower can be

made from sections and assembled to ease transport issues. Again
weight will be an issue but it is secondary to other considerations.
If a turbine is placed off-shore, then the weight becomes of greater
importance in terms of the costs of foundations and the cranes
necessary to install the turbine.
Corrosion is an issue particularly off-shore.

Materials for Wind Turbine Tower

The two most common materials used for wind turbine towers are structural
steel and reinforced concrete. It is more standard to use steel. Steel is also
galvanized or painted to protect it from environmental damage such as
corrosion.
Composition and cut view of tower is as shown in figure for an small height
wind mills.