Strength demands of tall wind turbines subject to earthquakes and wind load

• Published in: Procedia engineering Vol. 199; pp. 3212 - 3217
• Main Authors: Martinez-Vazquez, P., Gkantou, M., Baniotopoulos, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2017
• Subjects: earthquake; hyper-tall wind turbines; multi-hazard load scenarios; wind load; earthquake; wind load; multi-hazard load scenarios; hyper-tall wind turbines
• ISSN: 1877-7058; 1877-7058
• DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.09.318

Wind and earthquake load have historically been conceived to act independently. However, if we reflect on the fact that major seismic events are usually followed by a number of aftershocks and that wind is constantly flowing at high intensities around wind farms, which induces additional demands of resistance to infrastructure, then the joint probability of middle-to strong earthquakes and low-to mild wind events becomes more relevant. In this paper a generalised approach is used to estimate the ratio between earthquake and wind forces and their effect on infrastructure. Following, a probabilistic analysis is carried out to show that under certain conditions the combination of these natural events can induce additional demands of strength and ductility to wind turbines which could lead to unforeseen damage.