OPTIMIZED STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF STEEL TUBULAR TOWERS OF WIND TURBINES

Resumo

The wind energy is an important renewable energy resource, and it has been recently
explored in Brazil, with a strong tendency to increase in the next decades, considering the Brazil's
potential. The most common way to explore the wind energy is through the wind turbines, usually
designed to have a maximum efficiency. The tower is an important part of the wind turbine design,
once it defines the wind turbine efficiency and must be designed to resist to different loadings,
responding for 30% of the wind turbine cost, approximately. This work presents a structural
optimization study of steel tubular towers of wind turbines, within a framework based on the strength
of materials and the principle virtual work for the structural analysis of the tower, besides optimization
techniques, with the goal to minimize the tower’s weight. Some comparisons are made with optimized
aluminum tower. The minimization of the tower’s weight through the employment of optimization
techniques allows a reduction of the costs with inputs, transportation, assembling and maintenance of
the tower, especially those ones that will be installed in remote areas with difficult access, besides
contributing with the study of this technology.