SBIR Phase I: Optimization of Tapered Spiral Welding for Wind Turbine Towers

SBIR 第一阶段：风力发电机塔筒锥形螺旋焊接优化

• 批准号: 1248182
• 负责人: Eric Smith
• 金额: $ 14.93万
• 依托单位: Keystone Tower Systems
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1248182&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Optimization; Tapered; Spiral

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses two roadblocks to reducing the cost of wind energy: the labor-intensive construction process, and size limitations imposed by road or rail transport for turbine components. The former issue drives up manufacturing costs and reduces US competitiveness with countries with inexpensive labor, while the latter forces sub-optimized tower designs and prevents turbines from growing larger and taking advantage of faster, steadier winds at higher hub heights. This project addresses both of these problems by adapting spiral welding - a well understood system for pipe and piling manufacturing - to wind tower production. Spiral welding is highly automated, requiring as little as 10% of the labor of the equivalent manual process. It also combines multiple operations into a single machine that can be operated on-site, eliminating transport costs and barriers. This project's innovation is to adapt existing spiral welders - which can manufacture only straight, constant wall-thickness pipe - to producing tapered, variable wall thickness towers. A novel material geometry and automated control of machine parameters are the keys to transforming the standard system to one optimized for turbine tower production. With on-site spiral welding of turbine towers, significant reductions in cost of wind energy are possible.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be felt in many areas: technical, commercial and environmental. The system?s major contribution is an increase in the use of wind energy for US electricity, enabled by both reduction in energy cost and increase in the number of cost effective wind sites. Reducing the cost of tall towers enables increases in the height and size of wind turbines, allowing them to reach and be optimized for steadier, higher speed winds. With these increase in size and optimization, decreases in cost of wind energy of 12% (for 120m tall towers) or more are possible. In addition, the US land area for which wind energy is cost effective can be doubled at 120m hub heights. Spiral-welding of turbine towers also provides US jobs and increases American competitiveness with overseas producers. Because on-site production is inherently local, manufacturing jobs are created in the communities where wind turbines are installed. Also, this method gives local production a major cost advantage over imports by producing towers that are too large to transport from port to wind farm. This allows domestic manufacturing to not only compete, but dominate in a domestic tower market worth roughly $1B in 2011.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目解决了降低风能成本的两个障碍：劳动密集型的施工过程以及公路或铁路运输对涡轮机部件施加的尺寸限制。前一个问题提高了制造成本，降低了美国与劳动力廉价的国家的竞争力，而后一个问题迫使塔架设计不优化，阻碍涡轮机变得更大，并在更高的轮毂高度利用更快、更稳定的风。该项目通过将螺旋焊接（一种众所周知的管道和桩制造系统）应用于风塔生产来解决这两个问题。螺旋焊接高度自动化，所需劳动力仅为同等手动工艺的 10%。它还将多种操作结合​​到一台可以现场操作的机器中，从而消除了运输成本和障碍。该项目的创新在于将现有的螺旋焊机（只能制造直的、恒定壁厚的管道）改造为生产锥形、可变壁厚的塔。新颖的材料几何形状和机器参数的自动控制是将标准系统转变为针对涡轮塔生产进行优化的系统的关键。通过涡轮机塔架的现场螺旋焊接，可以显着降低风能成本。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将体现在许多领域：技术、商业和环境。该系统的主要贡献是通过降低能源成本和增加具有成本效益的风电场数量来增加美国电力中风能的使用。降低高塔的成本可以增加风力涡轮机的高度和尺寸，从而使它们能够达到并优化以获得更稳定、更高速度的风。随着尺寸的增加和优化，风能成本可能降低 12%（对于 120m 高的塔）或更多。此外，在轮毂高度为 120m 时，风能具有成本效益的美国陆地面积可增加一倍。涡轮机塔架的螺旋焊接还为美国提供了就业机会，并提高了美国与海外生产商的竞争力。由于现场生产本质上是本地化的，因此安装风力涡轮机的社区会创造制造就业机会。此外，这种方法生产的塔架太大而无法从港口运输到风电场，因此与进口相比，本地生产具有主要成本优势。这使得国内制造不仅能够参与竞争，而且能够在 2011 年价值约 10 亿美元的国内塔式市场中占据主导地位。