Small windmills bases an stands. 2

[prestonaquaculture]

I am constructing 12 bases for small windmills that power pumps and aeration equipment for an aquaculture facility in Hawaii. The windmill units weigh approximately 50lbs and the zoning on the property dictates no structures over 25ft. I have an avg. windspeed of 12mph and often gusts of 50mph. The windmills are going to sit atop steel pipe without guide wires because the mountain location makes guide wires difficult. My question is will 2.5" schedule 40 steel pipe be enough to support this structure and what volume of concrete will be needed to develop a solid base" Any recommendations? I really appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Hire an engineer.. There are many factors involved.

 

[Kuhuh]

Just based on simple calculations I think you need to get bigger pipe. Maybe even double what you originally think because of the wind force. My local codes have a min. design of 70 mph

 

[prestonaquaculture]

Thanks I was getting to the same figures.. the windmill units have attachments to 2.5" in pipe but the rest of the structures I have are split into thirds 6in 4 in and then 3 or 2.5in.... the bases listed on units without guide wires are 10 x 10 by 1 ft which would be roughly 4 yards of concrete... does that sound suitable... and are their models available that dictate the length of pipe that should be buried. again thank you for the help, much appreciated... Im working with a very limited budget and time constraints.

 

[Kuhuh]

Choosing the correct base is a little more complicated for simplistic calculations due the soil characteristics, seismic calcs, water table. If you are erecting this you will need stamped calcs to get a permit so unless your licensed your not going to get the answers you need on this forum besides an idea of estimated quantities

 

[beej67]

You really, really need to hire an engineer for this. You need to design for some variety of worst case unless you want your whole wind farm blown away in a typhoon, and the wind load on a windmill by its very nature is going to be a unique thing to design around.

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