Design and development of a fibre composite windmill structure

Abstract

This paper presents the case study of designing the University of Southern Queensland windmill fibre composite tower - from developing the structural concept, and showing the importance of the early coordination between the design and manufacturing. With the main structural system based on sandwich construction, its behavioural issues and failure modes are discussed. As there is no design codes or guidelines that can be located in literature, engineering judgement, understanding of the basic modes of failure, and the manufacturing limitations and tolerances are essential in developing the appropriate design. The finite element modelling considerations and their complementary experimental results are presented. The paper concludes with general discussion of using composites for the main structural elements.