Semi-Analytical Formula for Estimating Variance Response of Megawatt Wind Turbine Tower Under Parked Condition

As the supporting structure of the wind turbine, the tower is important for the safety of the wind turbine. The accurate estimation of tower response is critical for the wind turbine tower design. In the preliminary design, lots of calculations are necessary to determine design parameters. The traditional time domain calculation suffers its low efficiency and hinders the design progress. To overcome this difficulty, the frequency domain analysis should be developed, especially for the large wind turbine which may be significantly affected by the aerodynamic damping. In this study, a semi-analytical formula for the variance of the tower base bending moment is developed from the frequency domain analysis at parked condition. First, based on the quasi-steady theory and the three-component (mean, background and resonant components) method commonly used in the wind-resistant design of structure, the analytical formula of the variance for the tower base bending moment is presented considering the three components of the wind velocity. Second, the analytical formula is corrected based on the comparison with the calculation result by FAST. In the correction, the empirical aerodynamic damping is adopted. Finally, the applicability of the developed semi-analytical formula is verified by 5[Formula: see text]MW, 10[Formula: see text]MW and 15[Formula: see text]MW wind turbines.