SUPPORT STRUCTURE FOR A WIND TURBINE

Abstract

The invention relates to a support structure, in particular for a wind turbine, having at least two segments, which are joined to one another such that their longitudinal axes extend substantially collinearly to one another. At least one of the segments is a pipe section, which has at least two mutually facing abutment surfaces that are joined to one another, at least in parts. A support structure is provided that is producible in less time and is more cost-effective because the join between the abutment surfaces involves at least one welded join, the thickness of the welding join being less than the wall thickness of the pipe section, and/or the join between the abutment surfaces involves at least one retaining clip.

Claims

1.-11. (canceled)

12. A support structure for a wind turbine, comprising: at least two segments which are connected to one another by means of a circular weld seam in such a manner that the longitudinal axes thereof run substantially collinearly to one another, wherein at least one of the segments is designed as a cylindrical pipe section which has at least two mutually facing joining surfaces which are connected to one another at least in sections, wherein the joining surfaces are connected to one another by means of at least one welded joint, wherein a thickness of the welded joint is smaller at least in sections than a wall thickness of the pipe section.

13. The support structure of claim 12, wherein the joining surfaces are connected to one another by means of at least one holding clamp.

14. The support structure of claim 12, wherein a recess, in particular a rounded portion, is provided in at least one transition region between at least one of the joining surfaces and an end surface of the pipe section.

15. A support structure particularly for a wind turbine, comprising at least two segments which are connected to one another in such a manner that the longitudinal axes thereof run substantially collinearly to one another, wherein at least one of the segments is designed as a cylindrical pipe section which has at least two mutually facing joining surfaces which are connected to one another at least in sections, wherein the joining surfaces are connected to one another by means of at least one holding clamp, wherein in at least one transition region between at least one of the joining surfaces and an end face of the pipe section, a recess, in particular a fillet, is provided.

16. The support structure of claim 13 or 15, wherein the holding clamp is enclosed on two sides by the joining surfaces, and/or ends flush with the outer and/or inner casing surface of the pipe section.

17. The support structure of claim 13 or 15, wherein the holding clamp has at least one concave rounded portion, wherein the rounded portion in particular merges substantially smoothly into the joining surfaces, and/or has a substantially biconcave shape.

18. The support structure of claim 14 or 15, wherein at least two, in particular four, recesses are provided, wherein the recesses in particular are assigned to an end surface lying opposite each other, and/or are assigned to opposite end surfaces facing away from each other.

19. The support structure of claim 14 or 15, wherein at least one recess is spanned at least in sections, in particular completely, by an end surface of an adjacent segment, and/or at least one recess merges at least in sections into a recess of an adjacent segment and/or at least two recesses of two adjacent segments are arranged circumferentially at an angular offset with respect to one another.

20. The support structure of claim 12, wherein the welded joint has residual compressive stresses in a thickness cross section, wherein the residual compressive stresses have been produced in particular by cold forming and/or forging, and/or the welded joint has been relieved of load by a hole being drilled therein.

21. The support structure of claim 12 or 15, wherein a thickening of a pipe wall is provided at least in sections in regions of the pipe section that are assigned to the joining surfaces.

22. The support structure of claim 12 or 15, wherein the joining surfaces are at a distance from one another and/or lie against one another at least in sections, and/or at least one metal sheet is arranged between the joining surfaces, wherein the metal sheet in particular extends in a substantially projecting manner into the pipe interior, and/or has a substantially L-shaped cross section.

23. The support structure of claim 12 or 15, wherein at least one corrosion protection device is arranged between the joining surfaces.

24. The support structure of claim 12, wherein at least one edge rounding is provided in at least one transition region between the joining surface and an end surface of the pipe section, in particular in that the welded joint partially or completely fills a region, which is assigned to the edge rounding, of the mutually facing joining surfaces, and/or at least one edge rounding is provided in at least one transition region between a joining surface and an inner and/or outer casing surface of the pipe section, in particular in that the welded joint partially or completely fills a region, which is assigned to the edge rounding, of the mutually facing joining surfaces.

25. The support structure of claim 12, wherein the wall thickness of the pipe section is formed in a tapered manner in a region adjacent to the joining surfaces, in particular is formed in a tapered manner in a wedge shape in the manner of a bevel.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0043] The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to drawings illustrating a number of exemplary embodiments. In the drawings, in each case schematically:

[0044] FIG. 1 shows a support structure according to the invention in a perspective view from above;

[0045] FIG. 2 shows the support structure from FIG. 1 in a cross section from above;

[0046] FIG. 3 shows a further support structure according to the invention in a side view;

[0047] FIG. 4 shows a further support structure according to the invention in a perspective view from above;

[0048] FIG. 5 shows a further support structure according to the invention in a perspective view from above;

[0049] FIG. 6 shows a further support structure according to the invention in a perspective view from above.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0050] FIG. 1 shows a support structure 10 according to the invention which is assembled from a plurality of segments 12, 14, 16, wherein only three segments 12, 14, 16 are illustrated by way of example.

[0051] The segments 12, 14, 16 are connected to one another on the end sides in such a manner that the longitudinal axes thereof run substantially collinearly with respect to one another and therefore coincide along a common longitudinal axis L. The end-side connection is realized by radial welding of the segments, and therefore the segments are in each case connected to one another via a circular weld seam 17. The radial weld seam 17 can be through-welded on the end sides over the full wall thickness of the segments 12, 14, 16.

[0052] The segments 12, 14, 16 are pipe sections and are each produced from a deformed sheet metal blank. In the example illustrated here, the sheet metal thickness t of the segments 12, 14, 16 is in each case approx. 100 mm.

[0053] The segments 12, 14 have mutually facing joining surfaces 18 which are connected to one another via welded joints 20. The connection or coupling of the joining surfaces 18 of the segment 12 takes place indirectly via a metal sheet 22 arranged between the joining surfaces.

[0054] The metal sheet 22 is connected on two sides to the joining surfaces 18 in each case via longitudinal weld seams 20. It has a substantially L-shaped cross section and extends in a projecting manner into the pipe interior. According to further embodiments of the support structure, in addition to the metal sheet 22, a corrosion protection device (not illustrated) can alternatively or additionally be provided between the joining surfaces 18.

[0055] The respective thickness a of the weld seams 20 is approx. 5 mm and is therefore smaller than the sheet metal thickness t. The respective thickness a of the weld seams 20, the sheet metal thickness t of the segment 12 and the metal sheet 22 are illustrated in FIG. 2 in a cross section along the plane II, wherein the plane II is oriented orthogonally with respect to the longitudinal axis L.

[0056] As can be seen from FIG. 2, the weld seams 20 merely cover part of the respectively assigned joining surfaces 18 since the thickness a of the weld seams 20 is smaller than the sheet metal thickness t of the pipe section 12. As already indicated at the beginning, the illustration should merely be understood schematically without the actual size ratios being reproduced true to scale.

[0057] In addition to two metal sheets 22, the connection of the joining surfaces 18 of the segment 14 comprises a holding clamp 24 which is arranged between the metal sheets 22 (FIG. 1). The holding clamp 24 is enclosed on two sides by the joining surfaces 18 and ends flush with the inner casing surface (not illustrated) and outer casing surface 26 of the segment 14. The holding clamp 24 is welded to the joining surfaces 18 of the segment 14.

[0058] The holding clamp 24 has two concave rounded portions 28 which merge substantially smoothly into the joining surfaces 18, and therefore in particular a step or a shoulder is not provided in the transition from a rounded portion 28 toward the mutually facing joining surfaces 18. The holding clamp 24 has a substantially biconcave shape.

[0059] By means of the biconcave shape of the holding clamp 24, adjoining or adjacent weld seams 20 are relieved of load, and therefore in particular the crack formation in the region of the weld seams 20 due to tensile stresses can be counteracted. Furthermore, the holding clamp 24 can serve as a crack limiter. Accordingly, when one of the weld seams 20 of the segment 14 fails, a crack does not continue over the entire length of the segment 14, but rather is interrupted in the region of the holding clamp 24.

[0060] In the present case, the holding clamp 24 is permanently incorporated into the support structure 10. According to alternative embodiments, a holding clamp can also be removed after the segments 12, 14, 16 have been connected on the end sides to one another. This creates a larger through opening in order to fasten cables or other add-on parts or to guide same through the pipe wall, or to reduce the weight or to save costs by reusing the holding clamp.

[0061] In order to increase the strength of the weld seams 20, in particular in relation to tensile loads, residual compressive stresses have been introduced into the weld seams 20 by cold deformation. Alternatively or additionally, residual compressive stresses can also be introduced into the weld seams by forging.

[0062] The residual stresses can be introduced into a weld seam 20 both on the longitudinal side and on the end side, as illustrated by way of example in FIG. 3 for two segments 13, 15. A radial weld seam 21 can be designed here to be continuous or interrupted in the region of the joining surfaces. In the regions 30, the strength of the components has been increased by cold forming. The arrows each indicate the direction of cold forming of the weld seams 20, 21 within the scope of the end-side remachining. It goes without saying that the weld seams 20, 21 can also be remachined over the entire weld seam length circumferentially or on the longitudinal side by cold forming and/or forging.

[0063] FIG. 4 shows a further refinement of a support structure 10 according to the invention, with a pipe section 32 and a segment 34. The pipe section 32 has recesses 36, 38, wherein the recesses 38 are spanned by an end side 40 of the segment 34. The joining surfaces 18 of the pipe section 32 have a distance from one another and can be connected to one another, for example, as per the manner illustrated in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2. For the illustration of the recesses 36, 38, the illustration of the connection of the joining surfaces 18 has been omitted for the segment 32. In particular, in alternative refinements of the invention, the joining surfaces 18 can lie directly on one another and can be welded to one another, for example according to FIG. 3, wherein optionally the remachining shown in FIG. 3 can take place.

[0064] A plurality of pipe sections 42, 44, 46, 48 can be combined to form a support structure 10 (FIG. 5). Each of the pipe sections 42, 44, 46, 48 can be configured in the region of the joining surfaces 18 in the manner of FIG. 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the arrangement of the recesses 36, 38 is illustrated schematically in FIG. 5.

[0065] The recesses 36, 38 can be completely spanned by the end surface of an adjacent segment, and therefore, for example, the recesses 38, which are assigned to the segment 44, of the segment 42 are bounded on the end side, as viewed in the axial direction along the axis L, by the end surface 50 of the segment 44.

[0066] Alternatively, the recesses 36, 38 two segments 46, 48 can be arranged without an angular offset with respect to one another and can merge into one another. This can create an enlarged through opening in the support structure 10.

[0067] Each of the segments 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 32, 34, 42, 44, 46, 48 can be combined with further segments 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 32, 34, 42, 44, 46, 48 to form a support structure 10. In the region of the joining surfaces 18, the segments 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 32, 34, 42, 44, 46, 48 can have one or more corrosion protection devices (not illustrated), wherein in particular one or more sacrificial and/or impressed current anodes can be positioned between the joining surfaces 18. In addition, in order to avoid buckling or shell bulging, the segments 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 32, 34, 42, 44, 46, 48 can be stiffened in the radial direction by stabilizing struts (not illustrated), or can have a thickening of the wall thickness in the region of the joining surfaces.

[0068] FIG. 6 shows a further refinement of a support structure 10 according to the invention. An edge rounding 56 is in each case provided in at least one transition region 52 between a joining surface 18 and an end surface 50 of a pipe section 54. The variants A, B and C show three different configurations of a welded joint 58 provided in this region.

[0069] According to variant A, the welded joint 58 fills only part of an intermediate space 60 formed between the joining surfaces 18.

[0070] According to variant B, the welded joint 58 completely fills the intermediate space 60 formed between the joining surfaces 18.

[0071] According to variant C, the welded joint 58 spans the intermediate space 60, which is formed between joining surfaces 18 that are spaced apart in said variant C, in the region of the edge roundings 56.

[0072] The edge rounding 56 forms a smooth transition between joining surfaces 18 and the end surface 50 of the pipe section 54. An adjoining pipe section 55 can likewise have edge roundings.

[0073] In the region of the edge rounding 56, the welded joint 58 extends over the entire width of the joining surfaces 18.

[0074] The wall thickness of the pipe section 54 is formed tapered in the manner of a bevel in a region 62 adjoining the joining surfaces 18, as can be gathered from detail D.

[0075] The tapering 62 has been produced here by a weld seam 64 in the region of the joining surfaces 18 having been partially abraded retrospectively. The weld seam 64 has a smaller thickness than the wall thickness of the pipe section in a non-tapered region 66.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0076] 10 Support structure [0077] 12, 13, 14, 15, Segment/pipe section (of the support structure) [0078] 16, 32, 34, 42, Segment/pipe section (of the support structure) [0079] 44, 46, 48, 54, 55 Segment/pipe section (of the support structure) [0080] 17, 21 Radial weld seam/circular weld seam [0081] 18 Joining surfaces [0082] 20 Welded joints/longitudinal weld seams [0083] 22 Metal sheet [0084] 24 Holding clamp [0085] 26 Casing surface [0086] 28 Rounded portions [0087] 30 Region of the cold forming [0088] 36, 38 Recesses [0089] 40 End side of the segment 34 [0090] 50 End surface [0091] 52 Transition region [0092] 56 Edge rounding [0093] 58 Welded joint [0094] 60 Intermediate space 60 [0095] 62 Region/tapering/bevel [0096] 64 Weld seam [0097] a Thickness of weld seam [0098] t Sheet metal thickness of the segments 12, 14, 16 [0099] L Longitudinal axis (of the support structure and of the segments/pipe sections)