wind turbine wobble
wind turbine wobble
(OP)
I have a client with a 45' wind turbine on a residential property. It has had a high pitched hum that was bothering the homeowner and neighbors so the home owner installed acoustic foam on the tower in an effort to dampen the noise. While it did help quiet things down, the tower has started to sway in high (>12kts) winds. It's not at the point where it looks like one of those inflatable figures in front of car dealerships, however it does sway enough to create concern. My initial response is to remove the insulation, check the torque on the head/tower connection and see if that fixes the wobble. if so great, but then we still have to deal with the noise.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?





RE: wind turbine wobble
Wind turbines are a source of long-traveling, greatly irritating, low frequency (long distance) and mid-frequency (air and ground/tower) noise. The popular press, never ones to criticize their chosen few ideologies of "green power" refuse to admit and publish these irritations, but they are a real problem to the industry.
Good luck. If the tower frequencies are "evident" when the tower is lightly touched while operating at the critical (noisiest) wind speed and power level, then adding vertical ribs (stiffeners) inside or outside the tower will increase weight (moves the critical mass away from a esonnance frequency) and will add stiffness to reduce the physical movement (vibration) of the steel skin that produces noise and (future) fatigue failure. I'm surprised the light weight insulation foam helped.
If the problem is cell enclosure vibration and movement, adding some mass above the bearing ring in the enclosure will help. But this will increase drag on the yaw motor and yaw motor drive trains.
RE: wind turbine wobble
RE: wind turbine wobble
RE: wind turbine wobble
RacookPE, The wind turbine industry doesn't exactly tell the media, or anybody else, anything about these noises and a few other "engineering secrets".
RE: wind turbine wobble