Vestas Wind Systems A/s

Soren P Jensen

Borge Ollgaard

Gunnar K Storgaard Pedersen

Borge Øllgaard

Casper Lyngsø

A wind turbine tower configured to support a wind turbine nacelle and a rotor, and with a tower wall of an inner surface and an outer surface. The tower is tethered by a number of cables, each cable extending between a first end anchored to an anchoring element and an opposite, second end attached to the tower at an attachment element. Two cables extending from two different anchoring elements are attached to the tower such that longitudinal projection lines from the second ends of the two cables converge at a convergence point, which lies at a location at a certain height and inside the tower wall thickness. Alternatively, the convergence point lies inside the tower within a distance of three wall thicknesses from the wall inner surface as measured at the height and in a direction perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis of the tower. The invention further relates to a method of erecting a wind turbine tower tethered by cables and configured for supporting a rotor assembly, and wherein the tower comprises a number of tower sections joined to each other. The method comprises positioning a first tower section, attaching at least some of the tethering cables to a second tower section while the second tower section is on the ground, lifting the second tower section with the attached cables onto the first tower section, and joining the second tower section to the first.

Wind turbine tower

A method of damping oscillations in a wind turbine tower comprises connecting a bag of material or liquid to a tower component at a first lateral distance away from a tower wall. The bag is also suspended from the tower component by a first vertical distance. The height of the tower component is known such that the first vertical distance corresponds to a particular height within the tower. The first lateral distance, first vertical distance, and mass of the bag are such that the bag is configured to hit said tower wall during oscillations in said wind turbine tower, in order to damp said oscillations in said wind turbine tower.

Method of damping wind turbine tower oscillations

The present invention relates to wind turbine towers and in particular to such towers having a damper for use when erecting the tower and prior to installing a nacelle on the top of the tower. The invention also relates to a method for damping wind turbine towers. One aspect of the invention involves a wind turbine tower () with an upper tower structure () and a damper () comprising, &#x2014;a liquidless damper housing () fixed to the upper structure, &#x2014;a cylindrical interior surface of the damper housing, and &#x2014;a damper mass having a horizontal extent which is less than a horizontal extent of the cylindrical interior surface of the damper housing, and &#x2014;at least one shock absorbing structure, where the damper mass is arranged to, when the tower oscillates, essentially stay in a standstill location, whereby a relative movement between the tower and the damper mass may cause an impact with between the tower mass and the shock absorbing structure dependent on the magnitude of the amplitude of the tower oscillation. A main technical progress is that the damper does not need detailed tuning to the towers natural frequency. As long as the damper mass is sufficient, it may be used for damping a range of tower sizes and heights.

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Varde, Denmark

Soren P Jensen