Prediction of Flange Deflection during the Welding Process in Manufacturing Wind Turbine Towers

Abstract

As the climate crisis gains prominence, there has been a surge in interest in renewable energy. Wind turbines are a representative energy generation system for wind power which is one of the most popular and renewable energy sources. Wind turbines have grown in size to get more electricity. As a result, the diameter and thickness of the towers, which are assembled by bolting steel pipes with welded flanges, have been increased. Because of the increased size of flanges, larger defects occur in the welding process. Therefore, a prediction of the flange deformation occurring in the welding process is a key factor in the wind turbine industry. Here, we conduct submerged arc welding experiments on plates and perform the finite element method (FEM) on plates and flange of monopile which is a steel tube installed into the sea bed. The dimensions of plates are 250×1000×100 mm (length×width×height) where the small length-to-width ratio reduces the effect of gravitational force and thus reduces the observational error. We use the commercial finite element software ABAQUS with the welding simulation tool QustomWeld and compare the FE simulations and experimental results. With the verified FEM, we perform an FE simulation on the flange deformation and evaluate the deflection in terms of ovality, flatness, and tilt.