Another solar energy boondoggle. Hopefully, President Trump's team can prevent this stuff for a few years.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/energy-experts-blast-failed-billion-dollar-doe-project-financial-boondoggle-disaster
This article says the failure was in the blades, but the picture seems to show a clean break in the tower near the top. Maybe somebody forgot the bolts...
As one wag says, these things are supposed to be wind turbines, not gentle breeze generators.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/victoria-berrybank-wind-turbine-collapse/104895810
Sym P. le,
Your question would assume bonded post-tensioning, with inadequate grouting. Do we know that, or was it an unbonded system, with inadequate protection?
Yes, when I saw the damage done in Western NC, I immediately thought of Camille. Nelson County VA has very similar topography to those areas in NC.
The western NC flooding is not really unexpected. The same thing happened in 1916 to Asheville. They thought they were more ready this time, but...
Not strictly applicable to the US, but we have flooding in Australia as well. Experience here was that after any major event, there were arguments about what was covered. Riverine flooding, storm surge, overland flash flooding, storm water drain blockage, etc. Most insurance companies have...
The Democrat response to Project 2025 is a sign that they are desperate. The Heritage Foundation think tank has been producing documents like this for 50 years, and never before have the Democrats been so strident and dishonest about the conservative goals.
The plates and rebar will give you a chance to keep the embedded item in place during concrete casting. If this is internal, I would consider placing the 'cap' plate down on the formwork for that reason.
The bolts just work in shear to transfer the strength deficit from the wide flange beam to the channels. The channels don't need to be full length, as the wide flange will doubtless take the shear without reinforcement, provided the end connections are adequate.
I like human909's proposal. That allows drilling the beam web (thinner) horizontally rather than the flange vertically from the bottom. And the bottom flange solution would require enough bolts for composite action, while the web bolting would only need to transfer the shared load.