General News
14 February, 2025
Expert provides insight on wind turbine structure
INVESTIGATIONS are continuing on the cause of the collapse of the blade, hub and nacelle of a wind turbine at the Berrybank Wind Farm last Monday, with an expert calling for an increased focus on wind turbine structural integrity.
Monash University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering director of enterprise and engagement Associate Professor Amin Heidarpour said following the incident, saying a targeted approach was needed to evaluate wind turbine structural integrity.
“This incident highlights the need for a thorough structural assessment to determine whether this was due to a design flaw, material fatigue or an unforeseen external factor,” he said.
“It is crucial to urgently investigate the cause of this failure to determine whether the 2500 wind turbines currently operating across Victoria require assessment.
“The cause of this failure can be identified through a detailed analysis of the damaged blades, supplemented by laboratory testing to understand their performance under extreme loading conditions.
“We should admit that any kind of failure may affect community concerns, so we cannot hide that, but I think wind farm companies need to attend promptly and discover the cause of failures like the one that happened recently.
“Then, based on the discovered reason, a proper assessment of all other similar wind turbines needs to be done and the result of such assessments can be used to manage community concerns in a better way.”
Mr Heidarpour said wind turbines are known to experience six types of failures – including surface damage to the blades, structural cracks, lighting cracks, manufacturing defects, fire damage and operational error.
He said he hoped the cause of the failure at Berrybank was quickly discovered, and lessons learned from the incident were shared across the industry to be considered in future turbine designs.
“The wind turbine blades are one of the important elements of the wind turbine that normally gets collapsed, and the blade is subject to a complex of environmental and mechanical loading during their service time including the cyclic deformation that comes from the wind load, rain, sand contamination, erosion, temperature variation and so on,” he said.
“In order to reduce and optimise the maintenance cost, a detailed understanding of the degradation and failure mechanisms of wind turbines and their blades is needed.
“One other thing I would like to highlight is that design for extreme weather scenarios should be considered for these assets as we shouldn’t forget that climate change may affect the intensity of extreme weather conditions for which these structures in future may experience extreme loading at a scale which had not been considered during their initial design.
“We need to learn from each failure and update the current practice to mitigate the consequences of future failures.
“If we can develop a cost-effective solution and practical practices around each of these failure mechanisms, we should be able to mitigate the consequences in the future.”
Read More: local