Experimental Study on Vibration Control of Offshore Wind Turbines Using a Ball Vibration Absorber

Jie Li, Zili Zhang, Jianbing Chen

School of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

DOI: 10.4236/epe.2012.43021                

Abstract

To minimize the excessive vibration and prolong the fatigue life of the offshore wind turbine systems, it is of value to control the vibration that is induced within the structure by implementing certain kinds of dampers. In this paper, a ball vibration absorber (BVA) is experimentally investigated through a series of shake table tests on a 1/13 scaled wind turbine model. The reductions in top displacement, top acceleration, bottom stress and platform stress of the wind turbine tower system subjected to earthquakes and equivalent wind-wave loads, respectively, with a ball absorber are examined. Cases of the tower with rotating blades are also investigated to validate the efficacy of this damper in mitigating the vibration of an operating wind turbine. The experimental results indicate that the dynamic performance of the tested wind turbine model with a ball absorber is significantly improved compared with that of the uncontrolled structure in terms of the peak response reduction.

Keywords

Offshore Wind Turbine; Shake Table Test; Vibration Control; Ball Vibration Absorber

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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