NEESR-II: A Seismic Study of Wind Turbines for Renewable Energy

该奖项是NSF 08-519计划征集小乔治·E·布朗的成果。地震工程模拟(NEES)研究网络(NEESR)竞赛，包括加州大学圣地亚哥分校(UCSD)(牵头机构)和哈维·穆德学院(次要奖项)。该项目将利用加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)和加州大学圣地亚哥分校(UCSD)的NEES设备场地。研究成果将使工程师能够适当和经济地考虑风力涡轮机上的地震载荷。这将进一步促进绿色可再生能源的主要来源的扩大，并确保最大限度地减少对风力发电提供的关键资源的破坏。该项目将与业界代表合作进行，以便进一步将研究重点放在当今最重要的实际需求上。相关的教育推广活动将允许本科生参与使用有关的NEES世界级测试设施。此外，项目组将为K-12和本科生开发相关的互联网传播应用程序。在美国，2006年对风力涡轮机的投资约为40亿美元。这一增长没有显示出放缓的迹象，能源部(DOE)的目标是到2015年将风力涡轮机的数量增加五倍。这一增长很大一部分发生在地震多发的州。例如，2005年和2006年新增装机容量的四分之一以上位于地震多发的加利福尼亚州和华盛顿州。新的风力涡轮机也变得越来越高和越来越重，垂直高度超过200英尺(比20层建筑还高)，因此增加了潜在地震荷载的重要性。如果地震易受影响，大型风力发电场中的许多给定年份的涡轮机可能会损坏，导致严重的经济后果。为了应对这一挑战，拟议的研究将利用NEES设施来提供所需的实验数据和见解，以开发经过验证的理性分析和设计程序。加州大学洛杉矶分校运营的NEES设备将用于进行全面的现场调查，以量化实际运行的风力涡轮机的动力学。利用UCSD NEES室外振动台进行的实验将有助于了解风力涡轮机在遭受地震震动时的潜在破坏模式。这些测试的结果将被用来构建和验证计算模型，这些计算模型将进一步扩展测试结果。这些模型将用于开发风力涡轮机的地震分析和设计框架。这一努力的智慧价值来自于为全球风力涡轮机提供了第一个经过实验验证的地震设计程序。该项目的数据将通过NEES数据库(http://www.nees.org).)提供

This award is an outcome of the NSF 08-519 program solicitation George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Research (NEESR) competition and includes the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) (lead institution) and Harvey Mudd College (sub-award). This project will utilize the NEES equipment sites at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The research outcomes will allow engineers to appropriately and economically account for seismic loading on wind turbines. This will further facilitate expansion of a main source of Green renewable energy, and ensure minimal disruption to the critical resource that wind power provides. The project will be conducted in collaboration with industry representatives in order to further focus the research effort on the most significant practical needs today. Related educational outreach activities will allow undergraduate students to participate in the utilization of the involved NEES world class testing facilities. In addition, the project team will develop related internet dissemination applications for K-12 and undergraduate students. In the United States, the 2006 investment in wind turbines was on the order of $4 billion. This growth shows no sign of slowing with the Department of Energy (DOE) goal of expanding the number of wind turbines fivefold by 2015. A significant portion of this growth is in earthquake prone states. For instance, more than a quarter of the new capacity installed in 2005 and 2006 was in the seismically vulnerable States of California and Washington. New wind turbines are also becoming increasingly taller and heavier, standing vertically in excess of 200 feet (taller than a twenty-story building), and thus increasing the significance of potential earthquake loads. If seismically vulnerable, numerous turbines of a given vintage in a large wind farm may be damaged, leading to substantial economic consequences. In order to address this challenge, the proposed research will utilize NEES facilities to provide the needed experimental data and insights for developing validated rational analysis and design procedures. The NEES equipment operated by UCLA will be used to conduct a comprehensive field investigation to quantify the dynamics of actual operating wind turbines. Experiments using the outdoor UCSD NEES shake table will provide insight into the potential damage modes of wind turbines when subjected to earthquake shaking. Findings from these tests will be used to construct and validate computational models that will further extend the testing results. These models will be used to develop a framework for seismic analysis and design of wind turbines. Intellectual merit in this effort stems from providing the first experimentally validated seismic design procedure for wind turbines worldwide. Data from this project will be made available through the NEES data repository (http://www.nees.org).