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：劳动密集型的建设过程，以及公路或铁路运输对涡轮机部件的尺寸限制。前一个问题推高了制造成本，降低了美国与廉价劳动力国家的竞争力，而后一个问题迫使塔设计不优化，阻碍了涡轮机变得更大，并在更高的轮毂高度上利用更快、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，解决了这两个问题。螺旋焊接是高度自动化的，只需要相当于人工过程的10%的劳动力。它还将多个操作组合到一台机器中，可以在现场操作，消除了运输成本和障碍。这个项目的创新之处在于将现有的螺旋焊机——只能制造直的、壁厚不变的管子——改造成锥形的、壁厚可变的塔。一种新的材料几何形状和机器参数的自动化控制是将标准系统转化为涡轮塔生产优化系统的关键。涡轮机塔的现场螺旋焊接，风能成本的显著降低是可能的。这个项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将体现在许多领域：技术、商业和环境。这个系统吗?由于能源成本的降低和成本效益的风力站点数量的增加，美国电力使用风能的增加是其主要贡献。降低高塔的成本可以增加风力涡轮机的高度和尺寸，使它们能够达到更稳定、更高速度的风，并对其进行优化。随着这些尺寸的增加和优化，风能成本降低12%（对于120米高的塔）或更多是可能的。此外，在120米的枢纽高度上，风能具有成本效益的美国陆地面积可以翻一番。涡轮塔的螺旋焊接也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，因此在安装风力涡轮机的社区创造了制造业就业机会。此外，这种方法使当地生产比进口产品具有重大的成本优势，因为生产的塔太大，无法从港口运输到风力发电场。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10亿美元的国内铁塔市场占据主导地位。