Giant Wind Turbines Keep Mysteriously Falling Over. This Shouldn't Be Happening.

Popular Mechanics ^ | JAN 23, 2023 | Tim Newcomb

[Leaning Right]

The taller the wind turbine, the harder they fall. And they sure are falling.

Wind turbine failures are on the uptick, from Oklahoma to Sweden and Colorado to Germany, with all three of the major manufacturers admitting that the race to create bigger turbines has invited manufacturing issues, according to a report from Bloomberg.

[null and void]

Exactly!

[Erik Latranyi]

...almost like a resistance is growing to this green agenda....

[rktman]

Gives them something to tilt at. 😎👍

[Quilla]

As a manufacturer of roof truss systems for several decades, we had to incorporate significant wind loads to accommodate church steeples mounted to our trusses. They were always over-engineered and are therefore still standing. (Thank you Lord!)

[okkev68]

I guess they didn’t do wind tests to account for tornadoes in OK that can produce not only 100mph sustained winds, but updrafts and downdrafts, and assdrafts, etc....

I always laugh when we go to Hawaii that they restrict signage size and heights, all for the environment and aesthetics, but litter the mountainsides with windmills. I guess in their minds they are goo little envorinazis.

[steve86]

“The tips of those blades are moving close to the speed of sound”

No. Limited to about 300 km/h.

[Yo-Yo]

Take a look at the third picture at post 18... See how the flanges (top and bottom) have separated completely with almost zero damage? It almost looks like all the bolts have simply and simultaneously evaporated and in fact, they have... While the vibration due to the rotating mass could have had a role in the fatigue damage of the bolts, it more likely is just the result of the tower swaying in the wind and putting the bolts through endless cycles of varying stress. Then one bolt goes and puts the rest under even more stress.... however, since they all have been put through the same number of cycles, the remaining bolts are also near the end of their fatigue life and with a bit of an increase in wind that adds a bit more stress, they all start to pop just like popcorn... and down comes the tower. I could show many pictures just like this one... some where the separation at a flange is complete and some just like the picture 3 where it’s still hanging on by a a few bolts that act as the hinge point as it topples over.

Looking at that third picture, it appears to me that the steel failed first above the joint, causing the mast with the doghouse to fold and lean over. It was this off-center load that then sheared the bolts as you described, arresting any further folding of the steel at the failure point and instead finished toppling over at the failed joint.

In other words, the bolts failed because the tower leaned over, the tower didn't lean over because the bolts gave out. The bolts were stretched beyond their yield point.

[Yo-Yo]

Take a look at the third picture at post 18... See how the flanges (top and bottom) have separated completely with almost zero damage? It almost looks like all the bolts have simply and simultaneously evaporated and in fact, they have... While the vibration due to the rotating mass could have had a role in the fatigue damage of the bolts, it more likely is just the result of the tower swaying in the wind and putting the bolts through endless cycles of varying stress. Then one bolt goes and puts the rest under even more stress.... however, since they all have been put through the same number of cycles, the remaining bolts are also near the end of their fatigue life and with a bit of an increase in wind that adds a bit more stress, they all start to pop just like popcorn... and down comes the tower. I could show many pictures just like this one... some where the separation at a flange is complete and some just like the picture 3 where it’s still hanging on by a a few bolts that act as the hinge point as it topples over.

Looking at that third picture, it appears to me that the steel failed first above the joint, causing the mast with the doghouse to fold and lean over. It was this off-center load that then sheared the bolts as you described, arresting any further folding of the steel at the failure point and instead finished toppling over at the failed joint.

In other words, the bolts failed because the tower leaned over, the tower didn't lean over because the bolts gave out. The bolts were stretched beyond their yield point.

[Yo-Yo]

Sorry for the double tap...

[Churchillspirit]

LOL!

Seriously though.....there was a reason Warren Buffett considered wind energy a bad investment.

[ken in texas]

- ... the specs for one section of concrete called for rebars 12 inches apart. The workers were laying them 18 inches apart. Just to save a few bucks. -

Some years back, in a different locale, I learned about a home builder that would lay the rebar for the home's foundation, get it inspected and approved. Later that day they would pull the rebar for use at another home site and pour the concrete.

[right way right]

Green job etc scam…as predicted.

[faucetman]

Wind turbines, A YUGE mistake!

Who couldn’t see the fallacy of this idea?

[KC Burke]

As a followup to your speculation I would remind everyone of the office tower in Boston back 30 years ago that had window/curtain wall failure. The design had been analyzed with wind mock-up computations from 120 different wind angles — essentially every three degrees of exposure. After the failures it was discovered that if the analysis and mock-up had been done for every 1.5 degrees they would have found multiple failure angles.

These towers and the bladed turbines are very complex structures and the most complex portions are at the point of highest leverage and height. A storm has winds whipping all directions and different winds at various levels. Design analysis would have to be extremely complex to determine everything that could bear on possible failure.

[GingisK]

That is a very pretty sight. I hope the all meet that fate.

[353FMG]

Someone is telling us that windmills are definitely not the answer to our energy problems.

[lewislynn]

Inspectors are people that are too lazy or couldn't make it in the real world of construction.

The self-proclaimed inspector on this thread, blaming cheating contractors for shoddy work, wasn't able to see from the photos there clearly was no failure in the concrete.

Yes there are contractors that cheat just as there are inspectors that take bribes.

[Eleutheria5]

Just like the whole climate change fad, too much motion anchored on too flimsy a foundation.

[Elsie]

manufacturing ?

Or DESIGN??

[Elsie]

The pictures posted here show NO footing failure.

The towers are broken in the middle!