Advanced Steel Construction

Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 343-360 (2017)


INFLUENCE OF EXECUTION TOLERANCES FOR

FRICTION CONNECTIONS IN CIRCULAR AND

POLYGONAL TOWERS FOR WIND CONVERTERS

 

Christine Heistermann 1, Marko Pavlović 1,4,*, Milan Veljković 1,4, Daniel Pak 2,5, Markus Feldmann 2,Carlos Rebelo 3 and Luis Simões da Silva 3

1Steel Structures, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden

2 Institute for Steel Construction, RWTH Aachen University, Mies-van-der-Rohe-Straße 1, 52074

Aachen, Germany

3ISISE; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, Pólo 2,

3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal

4Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Stevinweg 1,

2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands

5Universität Siegen, Paul-Bonatz-Str. 9-11, 57076 Siegen, Germany

*(Corresponding author: E-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Received: 9 June 2016; Revised: 15 August 2016; Accepted: 29 October 2016

 

DOI:10.18057/IJASC.2017.13.4.2

 

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ABSTRACT

Friction connections with long open slotted holes have been proven to be a competitive alternative to the conventional flange connections in steel tubular towers for wind energy converters. As full-scale tests are not available, results of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the real-scale tower geometry are used in this paper to investigate the influence of tower cross section shape, execution tolerance (gap between the shells) and length of the connection on the bending resistance. Buckling behaviour of the shell in the vicinity of the friction connection in circular and polygonal towers is compared. The friction connection is thoroughly examined and recommendations for execution tolerances are given. The influence of two types of the execution tolerances on the connection strength is considered: inward bended “fingers”, leading to inclined gaps, and a parallel gap created by different tower diameters.

 

KEYWORDS

steel tubular tower, wind energy converter, friction connection, long open slotted hole, circular cross section, polygonal cross section, execution tolerance, FEA


REFERENCES

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