I'm not an engineer, and didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but 131MPH doesn't seem like it should be strong enough to cause complete failure of a wind farm. That's insane wind, but I would think they'd be designed for higher. Google tells me they have had upper 90's winds before.
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- Thread starter nfrine
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I am an engineer (but not a structural engineer). My guess is they are designed for lower wind speeds than that (maybe 100-110 mph... 120 mph max?). The odds of any one point experiencing 100 mph winds over a design life-span of the structure (20, 30, 40 years?) is pretty low. Yes it happens every year somewhere, but it's probably cost-prohibitive to design each structure for 130 mph wind. Plus if they do fail and fall over, they're generally falling into open farmland with an extremely low safety risk.
Someone has completed a cost/risk analysis on this.... just not me.
131MPH is one thing. 131MPH on a structure that large is very different. Also, 131MPH measured at the surface would be likely significantly higher a couple hundred feet up like those are. Add in that you are not going to be getting a uniform load and BAM.
They might be able to comprehend the heat... Just without the AC.
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Windspeeds at the hub (~300 ft AGL) are typically higher than at the surface, with less turbulence wake at the boundary layer of the terrain. Now factor in the blade height reaches a couple hundred feet higher than the hub still, and yep - you ain't designing an economic system that can withstand the extreme conditions observed.
If they confirm 131mph at the surface, windspeed could have easily exceeded 180mph at the 500+ ft tip height. That's quite a load spread across a blade surface, and the tower structures aren't designed to survive that.
That fiberglass all over when those blades hit are going to be a mess for the landowner.
Most buildings are designed for 90mph (50 year wind event). Like others have said, the pressure goes up the taller the structure is. Not sure what wind turbines are required to be designed for. Would not surprise me at all that 130mph would be way higher than that
Like you said, it's a cost/risk analysis. Wind pressure (actual force in the tower) is a function of the wind speed squared. So 130mph puts about twice as much stress on a turbine as 90mph. So the structure gets more expensive quickly if you try to design for it. Turbines collapsing pose a small risk to human life, so wouldn't surprise me if they're not designed for that high of loads. Especially since their expected life span is pretty short. They aren't expected to last 75-100 years like a building.
