Full Scale Testing for Investigation of Wind Turbine Seismic

Response
*

Ian Prowell , Marc Veletzos , and Ahmed Elgamal

Abstract
The earthquake response of wind turbines is a topic of interest, relevant to installations in
seismic regions. In recent years, researchers and practitioners have approached this problem through
application of existing code for building structures as well as numerical and analytical modeling of wind
turbines. The Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Large High Performance Outdoor
Shake Table at the University of California, San Diego has opened the possibility of full-scale shake
table tests of tall structures, such as wind turbines. In November 2004, researchers at the University
of California, San Diego successfully conducted a full-scale test on a 65 kW turbine. The turbine was
excited perpendicular to the axis of the rotor with a seismic base shaking record scaled to various
levels. This paper presents an overview of the experimental program and associated preliminary
analytical results.

Introduction
The worldwide installed wind power continues to grow rapidly. The year 2007
saw a significant increase in installed wind power (WWEA, 2008). Contrary to
historical trends where Europe dominates the market for wind power, much of this
growth was concentrated in North America and Asia. Both regions periodically
experience strong earthquakes that may impact the final turbine design. As the
installed wind power in earthquake prone regions grows, so does the importance of
appropriate consideration of seismic hazards. Under-predicting this hazard exposes
the operators and the communities dependent on wind power to undue risk. On the
other extreme, over-prediction of earthquake influence may lead to costly designs
that place unjustifiable pressure on the economical feasibility of wind power. Thus,
rational prediction of seismic considerations will maintain and enhance the ability of
wind power to economically compete with other energy sources.
The estimation of wind forces developed on the turbines is a mature field. It is
based on extensive experimentation, practical experience, theoretical predication,
and numerical modeling. In contrast, the process of estimating seismic forces on
turbines is relatively new. Current practices for seismic loading vary greatly, but
generally fall into one or both of two categories: numerical (finite element) analysis;
and analysis based on building codes such as the 1997 Universal Building Code
(ICBO, 1997). Additionally, there are situations where the estimation of seismic loads
is simply not preformed. It is widely recognized that the dynamic behavior of wind
turbines is distinct from that of other building structures. Despite this difference, code
based procedures for seismic forces rely on the available principals that have been
developed for buildings. While finite element methods allow specific consideration of
wind turbines, they currently lack the extensive body of experimental results that
exists for buildings to provide validation of predicted behavior.
It is imperative that wind farms remain in operation immediately following an
earthquake to provide power for rescue and recovery efforts. In contrast to a city
comprised of many different structures, a wind farm consists of few types of unique
structures. This homogeneity raises the problem that an earthquake with unfavorable
characteristics may damage most of the turbines at a given wind farm. The last
*

University of California, San Diego, Department of Structural Engineering, La Jolla, CA 92093-0085

Corresponding author, Tel: (858) 822-1075, Email: elgamal@ucsd.edu

decade has seen an increase in the consideration of seismic loading for wind
turbines (Bazeos et al., 2002; Lavassas et al., 2003; Zhao and Maisser, 2006). Unlike
buildings, certification guidelines call for turbines to behave elastically (GL, 2003) and
sustain no damage during an earthquake to ensure operability. Reliable methods for
understanding seismically induced load on wind turbines will decrease the likelihood
of damage due to seismic events without excessive cost.
Seeing this challenge, researchers at the University of California, San Diego
(UCSD) are experimentally investigating wind turbines to gain an understanding of
expected earthquake forces. This paper presents the experimental setup for a full
scale shake table test of a wind turbine, along with a brief summary of the results.
The data is analyzed using simple, yet effective, procedures to provide insight into
the observed structural damping of the wind turbine.
2

Earthquake Loading on Wind Turbines

The growth of wind turbine installations in seismic regions has spurred interest
in the consideration of earthquake loads on wind turbines (Riso, 2001; Agbayani,
2002; Bazeos et al., 2002; Lavassas et al., 2003; Witcher, 2005; Zhao and Maisser,
2006; Zhao et al., 2007). The main concerns for such loading are the same
regardless of the type of structure being considered:
1. Seismic risk
a. Anticipated level of shaking
b. Recurrence of shaking
2. Local soil properties
3. Structural properties
a. Structural frequency
b. Structural ductility
c. Structural damping
Seismic risk, which includes the anticipated level of shaking and the
recurrence of shaking, is associated with the geographic location. Building codes will
use geographic location to assign a level of seismicity. In some cases, a site specific
analysis is conducted to asses the anticipated level of seismicity. Historically,
turbines were installed in regions of low seismicity throughout Europe, where the risk
level was not high enough to warrant consideration. As wind turbine installation
expands into new regions, seismicity is becoming a concern and must be considered.
For example, some installations in California are located in regions of high seismicity
and may even have earthquake fault lines that traverse the wind farm. The damage
experienced in the 1995 Kobe earthquake is a graphic example of a near source
seismic event, centered only 20 km from downtown Kobe (Horwich, 2000).
Local soil properties are another important consideration for seismic loading of
civil structures. Foundation and super-structure design are strongly influenced by
local soil properties. Many wind farms are situated along ridge lines and have stiff
soils that present fewer design challenges. Other installations are located in coastal
regions or alluvial deposits that frequently contain soft or loose soils. Such situations
require special consideration and warrant careful attention during design.
Additionally, the local soil properties can influence the level of shaking through
amplification. The most graphic example of local soil amplification was observed in
the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (Singh et al., 1988). Unlike Kobe, the earthquake
was centered over 300 km from Mexico City, but local soil conditions amplified

motion that was hardly perceivable outside of the lakebed where the city is located to
levels that caused widespread damage.
The natural frequencies of a structure also strongly influence the response to
harmonic loading. If the earthquake contains energy at any of the lower natural
frequencies, significant forces will develop in the structure. Major components of
modern turbine designs commonly have natural frequencies in the range of up to 15
Hz (Bazeos et al., 2002; Zhao and Maisser, 2006; Zhao et al., 2007), which is
approximate frequency range of interest for earthquake loading (ICBO, 1997; ICC,
2006). This loading phenomenon, known as resonance, is common to all turbine
dynamic loading scenarios. Currently, careful attention is given to ensure that natural
frequencies of major structural components, such as the tower and blades of the
turbine do not overlap under normal operating conditions.
These factors, seismic risk, local soil properties, and structural frequencies,
will strongly influence the amount of energy that a civil structure must handle to resist
damage in an earthquake. During vibration, damping is a measure of the ability to
dissipate dynamic energy, and is highly influenced by characteristics, such as
material properties and construction details of the structure. A structure with high
levels of damping will be able to efficiently dissipate energy imparted from an
earthquake or other dynamic sources. A common method of economically increasing
the influence of damping in civil structures is by providing ductility, the ability of the
structure to deform and sustain damage without collapsing. However, as previously
mentioned, wind turbines should not sustain damage in earthquakes precluding the
reliance on this mechanism of increased damping.
3

Existing Work for Earthquake Forces

As highlighted in a paper published in the proceedings from the Structural
Engineering Association of California (SEAOC) 2002 convention (Agbayani, 2002)
design engineers currently struggle with the lack of guidelines specific to wind
turbines for considering earthquake loads. Due to the lack of such guidelines,
engineers sometimes utilize standard design methodologies from existing building
codes, the Uniform Building Code (UBC) (ICBO, 1997) or the International Building
Code (IBC) (ICC, 2006). Designers find, as turbines increase in size and weight, that
according to these codes, seismic forces may be larger than the expected forces
from other sources such as wind (Agbayani, 2002) leading to an increased interest in
the earthquake response characteristics. In 2001, Riso National Laboratory (Riso,
2001) presented a simple process for estimating seismic loading of a wind turbine
based on the first natural frequency in conjunction with a response spectrum to
estimate seismic demand. In 2002, one of the first attempts to quantify the dynamics
of wind turbines due to seismic demands was published (Bazeos et al., 2002) and
presented extensive finite element modeling of a prototype turbine with a 38 meter
tall steel tower designed for installation in Greece. Similar to the procedure
suggested by Riso, this investigation modeled the response of the turbine tower to
earthquake loads by representing the mass of the rotor and nacelle at a single point
atop the tower. In 2003, an investigation of a 44 meter tall turbine with a steel tower
designed for installation in Greece was published that included a more detailed
model of the tower (Lavassas et al., 2003). The seismic loading in this investigation
was based on Eurocode 3 with seismic zone II and rocky soil. For this relatively low
level of seismicity, seismic forces were 60% lower compared to those potentially
developed by wind loading. Again, the model placed the mass of the rotor and

nacelle at a single point at the top of the tower instead of reproducing the actual
geometry.
More recently, two methods for integrating the impact of the rotor and the
nacelle into seismic design of wind turbines were published. In response to demand
for estimation of loading at seismically active sites, Garrad Hassan added a seismic
module to GH Bladed (Witcher, 2005), their software product for wind turbine design.
This software uses a finite element model of the wind turbine combined with artificial
earthquake records that conform to code requirements for estimating forces caused
by seismic loading at a particular site. In addition, a theoretical model has been
developed (Zhao and Maisser, 2006; Zhao et al., 2007) that is capable of modeling
aerodynamic loading, base shaking, and effects due to rotation of the rotor. Both
developments provide promising computational models for evaluating wind turbine
seismic loading. However, the value of these models will increase greatly through
experimental verification to calibrate the predictions with real world observations.
4

Experiment Description
To provide much needed data for validation of existing and future models of
wind turbine behavior in response to earthquakes, researchers at UCSD conducted a
full scale test of a wind turbine. A 65 kW donated by Oak-Creek Energy Systems of
Mojave, CA, was mounted on the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
(NEES) shake table located at UCSD and subjected to base shaking that simulated
an actual earthquake. Instruments attached to the turbine recorded the response of
the tower. This data is of great value to assist in the development and calibration of
methods for predicting forces experienced by a turbine in an actual earthquake.
4.1

Physical Description of Test Turbine

The tested unit (Figure 1) is typical of many Danish turbines installed in
California, characterized by high reliability and simple operation (Hau, 2006). This
reliability and ease of operation has resulted in use beyond their design life, and
these units are still sold on the second-hand market. In comparison to modern
turbines, the unit tested is small, but represents the most common turbine
configuration, a thin walled tubular steel tower topped with a nacelle that yaws to
orient the rotor into the wind. A summary of the engineering properties of the turbine
is presented in Table 1.
4.2

Shake Table Facility

The shake table tests (Figure 2) were conducted on the UCSD, NEES Large
High Performance Outdoor Shake Table (LHPOST). The NEES shake table is a uniaxial table that is 7.6 m by 12.2 m in size with a stroke of 0.75 m, a peak horizontal
velocity of 1.8 m/s, a horizontal force capacity of 6.8 MN, an overturning moment
capacity of 50 MN-m (for a 400 ton specimen), and a vertical peak payload capacity
of 20 MN. The testing frequency range is 0-20 Hz. As such, this table is the largest
worldwide in terms of load capacity and the first outdoor facility of its kind anywhere.
The facility adds a significant new capability to existing United States testing facilities
with no overhead space and lifting constraints, which is essential for full scale wind
turbine testing.

Property
Value
Rated power
65 kW
Rated wind speed
33.8 km/H (21 MPH)
Rotor diameter
16.0 m (628 inches)
Tower height
21.9 m (864 inches)
Lower section length
7.9 m (313 inches)
Lower section diameter
2.0 m (80 inches)
Middle section length
7.9 m (312 inches)
Middle section diameter
1.6 m (62 inches)
Top section length
6.0 m (238 inches)
Top section diameter
1.1 m (42 inches)
Tower wall thickness
5.314 mm (0.2092 inches)
Rotor hub height
22.6 m (888 inches)
Tower mass
6400 kg (14.1 kips)
Nacelle mass
2400 kg (5.2 kips)
Rotor mass (with hub)
1900 kg (4.1 kips)
Table 1: Turbine Properties
4.3

Experimental Test Program

In November 2004, the turbine described above was mounted on the NEES
shake table and subjected to numerous base shaking events (with the rotor axis
perpendicular to the imparted motion). The rotor was oriented with one blade down,
parallel to the main tower for all test motions (Figure 1). To capture the towers lateral
response, uni-axial accelerometers were installed on the turbine and table as
indicated in Figure 2. One accelerometer was located on top of the shake table.
Four others were located on the turbine tower, one at the base, one at the lower joint,
one at the upper joint, and one on at the top of the nacelle (Figure 2).
Excitation used for the tests was derived from a recording of the Desert Hot
Springs (DHS) East-West component (0.15 g peak ground acceleration) of the June
28th, 1992 strike-slip Landers Earthquake (moment magnitude Mw =7.3). DHS is a
California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP) station situated on deep
alluvium located 23 km from the fault trace where the Landers Earthquake occurred.
To remove any superfluous offset as well as high frequency noise, the earthquake
record was filtered with a band pass of 0.05 Hz to 25 Hz. The record was scaled at
50%, 100%, 143%, and 200% for the shake table tests. As such, this was the first full
scale base excitation test for a wind turbine.

Figure 1: Shake Table Setup

Figure 2: Accelerometer Locations

4.4

Summary of Results
In this initial phase of experimentation, all tests were completed with no
damage to the turbine. As expected, the results showed essentially linear behavior
(Table 2) across the scaling range of 50% - 200%. Video of the tests is publically
available online at the UCSD NEES website, http://nees.ucsd.edu. In addition to the
longitudinal shaking, first hand accounts as well as the video footage of the test
indicate that some rotational motion occurred due to the mass distribution of the rotor
and nacelle. This torsion suggests that consideration of the mass distribution of the
rotor and nacelle may be of importance in understanding forces due to earthquakes.
The team at UCSD is in the process of fully analyzing the results to advance the state
of the art and provide further insights for seismic design.
Max Input
Max Response
Acceleration (g) Acceleration (g)
Turbine Landers 50%
0.07
0.19
Turbine Landers 100%
0.12
0.28
Turbine Landers 143%
0.17
0.52
Turbine Landers 200%
0.24
0.70
Table 2: Brief Summary of Experimental Results using a Scaled Landers Earthquake
Ground Motion
Test Name

4.5

Observed Damping
As previously mentioned, damping is an important factor in predicting the
ability of a structure to dissipate earthquake energy. Thus, it is important to use an
appropriate level of damping to ensure applicable results when using analytic and
numeric procedures to estimate earthquake induced loading. Specific estimates

used for wind turbines vary from values as low as 0.5% of critical damping (Bazeos et
al., 2002) to 2% (Agbayani, 2002). These values are lower than the 5% assumed by
the 2006 International Building Code (ICC, 2006). Damping due to energy radiation
back into the ground influences the above seismic damping estimates, and must also
be further investigated. This relatively wide range in damping values will affect the
estimates of seismically induced forces, necessitating closer scrutiny of this important
factor.
Experimental results from the shake table tests were used to estimate
damping present in the turbine structure at the first natural frequency, by averaging
the value obtained applying the log decrement method (Chopra, 2001) over the
record of free vibration phase of the experimental results. Additionally, the half power
method (Meirovitch, 1997) was used to estimate damping from the transfer function
of the input motion to the motion at the tip of the nacelle. Due to numerical precision,
the half power method represents an upper bound for the actual damping in the
system. The results (Table 3) for both the log decrement and half-power methods
show reasonable agreement across the 4 conducted tests, with the exception of the
log decrement method for the 50% level test. Given the consistency of the other
results, the log decrement 50% estimate is considered an anomaly and the data
supports the conclusion that the structural damping is approximately 0.6% for the
turbine structure (i.e., without the soil-structure interaction radiation damping
influence).
Test Name
Log Decrement Damping Half Power Damping
Turbine Landers 50%
2.00 %
0.60%
Turbine Landers 100%
0.86 %
0.64%
Turbine Landers 143%
0.43 %
0.66%
Turbine Landers 200%
0.41 %
0.52%
Table 3: Observed Damping
Since the turbine was not operating during the shake table tests, the values
reported above do not also represent the level of aerodynamic damping that may be
in effect during operation (Hansen, 2004). An experimental investigation for tall
buildings suggests that such aerodynamic damping is directional (Murakawa et al.,
1996). For vibration parallel to the wind direction, the aerodynamic damping of a
scale model was positive and increased with wind speed. In contrast, aerodynamic
damping for vibration perpendicular to the wind direction depended on many factors
and was even found to become negative for particular combinations of geometry and
wind speed. Unlike vibrations caused by wind, which are predominantly in the
direction of the wind flow, it is difficult to forecast if the predominant direction of
shaking from an earthquake and it is unlikely to coincide with the wind direction.
Furthermore, in both the 1997 Uniform Building Code (ICBO, 1997) and the
2006 International Building Code (ICC, 2006) wind loading and earthquake loading
are not considered simultaneously. In the absence of better information, a
reasonable solution is to neglect the impact of aerodynamic damping when
considering earthquake loading. The research team at UCSD hopes to conduct insitu experiments for operating wind turbines to quantify the directivity of aerodynamic
damping, and its potential influence on seismic response.
If aerodynamic damping is neglected, the results reported here support the
use of low damping (less than 1 percent) at the first natural frequency, for modeling

turbine response to strong ground motion (Bazeos et al., 2002). As mentioned

above, in a field installation, effects such as soil structure interaction (Kramer, 1996)
and aerodynamics may contribute additional damping. These and other effects may
warrant the consideration of higher damping for in-situ damping levels. Nevertheless,
the suggested range of damping (Newmark and Hall, 1987) for welded steel
structures (5-7%) may be on the high side for many situations.
5

Conclusion
This paper presents an introduction to an experimentally based program for
consideration of the impact of earthquakes on wind turbines. This area is of growing
importance as wind power expands beyond its European roots into earthquake prone
regions throughout the Americas, Asia, and elsewhere. Existing publications from
both the academic community as well as the wind industry show that this field is
growing and is of interest.
The experimental investigation summarized here shows that full scale seismic
testing of wind turbines is possible and can provide valuable insight into dynamic
behavior of wind turbines. The results obtained are an important first step in the
process of developing a more accurate picture of how wind turbines are impacted by
earthquakes. As shown by the low observed super-structure damping reported
above, the data provides a valuable basis for calibration and further development of
verified design procedures. Further work in this field is needed to develop a mature
understanding of the impact of earthquakes on wind turbines.
6

Acknowledgments
The authors extend thanks to all the organizations, corporations, and
individuals who contributed to this investigation. Oak Creek Energy Systems (Hal
Romanowitz and J. Edward Duggan) generously donated the 65 kW turbine for
shake table testing. The authors are grateful to NEES, the National Science
Foundation (NSF), and others that have provided funding for the UCSD Englekirk
Structural Engineering Center without which this research would not have been
possible.
7

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